Fairy Tail's Shinobi
by Albert da Snake
Summary: Hello there guys sorry if my story is a little late kind running on empty here…heehaw. Anyways this is a new story I got from watching Fairy Tail. I hope you guys like it as it will be featuring our lovable character Naruto but he will be kind of like an OC. Please bear with me and have fun. By the way, the Naruto here is the same one as in 'Naruto - Rebirth of the Rikudō Sennin'
1. Chapter 1

**Fairy Tail's Shinobi**

Hey guys this is a beta'd version thanks to Reikson who helped in proofreading this chapter. Thank you guys for reading my story even thought it was just random.

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: "_Naruto"_

Thoughts: _'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'_

Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "**Doton Jutsu, Ice Make Shield**!"

Demons and Dragons Speech: **"Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"**

Demons and Dragons Thinking: **'**_**The question is what to do with him…'**_

The Kingdom of Fiore is a neutral country of seventeen million people.

It is a world of magic.

Magic, bought and sought every day, is an integral part of the people's lives.

Moreover, there are those who use magic as their occupation. These people are mages or sorcerers.

The mages belong to various guilds, and perform jobs on commission.

There are a large number of guilds throughout the country of Fiore.

In addition, there lies a certain guild in a certain city.

This guild hosted legends in times long ago, and would continue to host more such legends long into the future…

…and its name is Fairy Tail!

**Chapter One: Erza's Secret**

A very unusual day in the life of the Fairy Tail Magic Guild started as it usually did.

Natsu and Gray were arguing again, Happy was eating something, Mirajane had just finished serving some more beer, Erza was eating her favorite cheesecake, and Lucy was waiting for her package to arrive.

It was a nice day and everyone was happy, as they'd just finished learning about S-Class mages and missions. Natsu wanted to go on one, but Guild Master Makarov had just stopped him and slammed him to the ground like a squashed bug.

Lucy was sitting at a table, sorting out her Celestial Spirit keys, when someone called her name and she looked up from her work. A uniformed figure stood at the front door, and she realized that her package had come in the mail. After thanking the mail carrier and running back to her seat, she started tearing open her package with such enthusiasm that both Natsu and Happy took notice.

Popping out in front of her, from practically out of nowhere and scaring her half to death in the process, Natsu asked, "Hey, Lucy, what do you have with you?"

Happy joined in, saying, "Hey, is it food?"

"No, you stupid cat!" Lucy barked angrily. "It's a book!"

"Book? What kind of book is it, Lucy?" asked a half-naked Gray.

"Why are you stripping?!" she shrieked, huffing indignantly. "Besides, this is a novel by the legendary and brand-new writer of beautiful romance novels, Hokage-_sama_!"

"Ha…" Natsu began, Happy continued, "ge…" and finally Gray finished with, "-_sama_…"

Then the three of them asked in unison, "Hage-_sama_?"

"No, you brainless hooligans!" Lucy shrieked at them. "Hokage-_sama_, not Hage-_sama_!"

"So, Lucy, what's the book about?" Mirajane asked. She'd never heard of this name before.

"Yes, Lucy, why **are** you so interested in this book?" Erza added.

With all eyes now on her, Lucy cleared her throat. "This book is the latest installment in a saga about a young man's journey through a world of strange and destructive magic, and how he fights to protect his loved ones. This series of novels started about three years ago, and popular with both men and women because Hokage-_sama_ is able to balance adult scenes, true romance, and intense fight scenes, all in his _Life of a Shinobi_ book series."

Suddenly, an awkward silence fell down upon the Guildhall. Everyone, except for Lucy, had inexplicably frozen in place. Looking around, she found everyone pale and terrified; almost as though they had seen a ghost. No, more like an angry demon.

Under his breath, Natsu hissed urgently, "Lucy, what did you just say?"

"I **said**, the book's called _Life of a Shi_-" the blonde Celestial Spirit mage began, before she had her mouth covered by her new friends. A sudden surge of oppressive force suddenly fell upon, seemingly intent on crushing her and everyone else in the guild.

Lucy looked around, trying to see where that feeling was coming from, and came upon a terrifying sight. Erza Scarlet, the Titania of Fairy Tail, was angry.

No, angry wasn't enough of a word to describe her current emotional state.

Erza was boiling with rage, her eyes glowing red and about ready to explode in their faces.

They could see her anger make an ocean of red magical power beneath her feet.

"Sh… _shinobi_!" The redhead screeched, going on the attack as an explosion destroyed all of the tables in the room. Natsu and Gray were the first to end up fighting for their lives.

Lucy escaped with Happy behind the counter of the bar, and found Mirajane already there with them. Doing the smart thing, Lucy asked, "Mirajane-_san_, what's all this about?"

"Oh, I forgot you're new," the white-haired young woman shrugged. "You wouldn't know."

"Know? Know what, Mirajane-_san_?" Lucy asked.

"The taboo word!" Mirajane hissed under her breath.

"Taboo? What taboo word?"

"Heh heh heh… '_shinobi_' is the taboo word," Mirajane giggled. "Sorry, I just like to mess around sometimes. Anyway, my explanation's a long story. Listen carefully because I won't repeat myself."

"I'm all ears, Mirajane-_san_," Lucy nodded, and Happy added, "So am I!"

"Okay…" the white-haired Demon of Fairy Tail sighed. "The story begins two years ago, when Erza went on an S-class quest to find some man with a bounty, I don't remember how much. Anyways, she went to some forest out West, found the man she was looking for, and battled him."

**{Flashback; Two Years Ago}**

Seventeen-year-old Erza Scarlet was walking around Crocus, capital city of Fiore. She was investigating rumors of a mage that was far more powerful than even an S-class mage. A man that was unaffiliated to any Guild, had resurrected recently deceased loved ones without having to sacrifice another person's life, and even killed a few of Zeref's nastiest demons. He'd pulled off all of those feats within the last five months.

She wanted to capture this mage, to see if he is any danger to her guild, Fairy Tail. She had no idea what to think about that actually managed to accomplish anything even remotely similar to the Tower of Heaven. Not with Jellal having taken command of the project and obsessed with finishing its construction.

As she was walking past a small group of guards, one of them said, "You okay, Sam? I thought that monster near the valley had killed you." Wanting more information, she pinned herself up against the nearest alley wall.

Another male voice, apparently Sam, agreed. "Yeah, I would've died if that stranger hadn't saved me. See, he even healed my wounds. I don't even have a scar. Guy said he only patched me up, but the doctors say that he completely healed the wounds." Peeking out of the alley, the Titania noticed the guard in question pulling up his shirt to reveal his torso being unmarred by scars that normally accompanied the healing of skin-breaking injuries.

Erza was very interested in this piece of information. Walking up to the guards, who saw her and whispered among themselves about her beauty, she asked them, "What do you know about the mage in the western forest?"

"Uh-" one of them began.

"Well, that's to say-" another started.

Out of patience, she knocked them both unconscious with a single punch each.

As she advanced on the last one, Sam, he shouted, "Okay, what do you want to know?!"

"I'm looking for the mage that rescued you because I'm investigating him," she said imperiously. "What does this mage look like? Where was the last place that you saw him or her? Was there anything special about this mage that stood out to you?" As she bombarded the hapless guard with more questions, he couldn't help but remember how she'd knocked out his compatriots and gulped nervously.

But when he noticed Fairy Tail's Titania getting irritated, he sighed in resignation. "The mage that saved my life and healed me was a powerful young man. There was a demon of some kind that attacked my squad in the western valley…" He pointed to his left, where she could see the valley beyond the open city gates.

"This unknown mage used some kind of powerful Fire magic to destroy the demon," Sam added, rubbing at his head. "I've never seen any kind of magical fire that could instantly cremate a corpse, bones and all, to ash and certainly not in the span of several seconds."

Erza frowned at the guards' words.

Turning his gaze to the forest beyond the western valley, he added, "Once he'd patched me up, or so he said, I noticed him walking into the forest."

"The forest at the far end of the valley in which you were ambushed?" Erza prodded him, and he nodded wearily.

As she headed out towards the forest, he muttered, "He was a strange man if I ever saw one." When she turned back and stared at him, he sighed. "He wore a long-sleeved black coat with a white flame pattern on the hemline. I did see strange writing written down the back of his coat, though; that might be his native language. He was wearing some kind of hood, so I could not see his face. Please don't hurt him. I owe him my life."

Erza said nothing, narrowing her eyes as she walked away. She couldn't afford to be softhearted, not when there was anything even remotely connected to Zeref was involved.

Later that day, she reached the western forest and started to look for any clue that she could follow. Unable to find anything significant, she plodded onwards until she found a huge lake in the middle of the forest. She noticed a figure with its back turned to her, which was nothing worth noticing. No, the problem was the fact that this figure was meditating on the water as if it was sitting on solid ground.

Another thing worth noticing was that the lake water swirled around the stranger's body, generating a gentle whirlpool that tugged at the lake's edges. Then Erza remembered what that guard Sam had told her, and noticed that the stranger on the lake was wearing the same clothing as the description.

After a while, the man stood and extended his hand over the water. As if nature itself was obeying him, bubbles of water rose from the lake and then actually began rising from its confines. She had to rub her eyes before believing that she was seeing bubbles of water floating in midair as though they were soap bubbles! To make things even more astonishing, the bubbles had fish in them!

As he turned towards, Erza hid behind a nearby tree and watched in silence as he walked to shore and started collecting pieces of wood and twigs. Once he'd fashioned a campfire, he made… no, he _breathed_ out a fire, in the same way that Natsu's _Karyuu no Houkou_ spell worked, and quickly had a nice blaze going.

Moving back to the water bubbles, which were still hanging in midair, he reached in and plucked them out one at a time. Spitting their bodies on wooden skewers, he set them near the fire and actually started to cook them.

The aroma wafted through the trees and Erza's nose twitched. As her mouth began to water, and her stomach gurgled angrily, she belatedly realized that she hadn't eaten ever since she'd left the city. Now, she was starving.

Her quarry sat down near the fire and waited patiently. After what seemed like an eternity of aromatic torture, his fried fish was ready. Picking one up, he was about to bite into it before stopping. She instantly hid herself behind her tree, but winced as he called over to her. "Hey, pretty lady, would you like some fish?"

She was surprised in spite of herself. His words implied that he'd known of her presence but hadn't said anything. Walking out from behind her tree and into his line of sight, she could feel herself blushing sheepishly after he'd caught her.

Then she remembered her original mission and steeled herself. Walking up to the man in black, she sat down opposite to him as he then passed a fish on a stick to her. Warily biting into its fried flesh, she couldn't help but notice that his simple fare was remarkably flavorful.

As they ate in silence, Erza found herself curious about her target. She was certain that he was the man that she'd been looking for, the same man rumored to be able to mimic Zeref's infamous Black Magic and his Resurrection magic. The fact that he seemed so unassuming, but possessed and could use such dark power so cavalierly, also made her wary.

While on his trail, she'd heard the stories.

How he could resurrect the untimely dead.

How nature-based combat magic, such as fire magic, seemed unable to hurt him.

How- she was snapped out of her thoughts when he asked her, "Well, pretty lady, what's a beautiful girl like you doing out here?" When she bristled as his question, he held up his hands in surrender. "Relax, girl. I'm not saying that you're weak or anything, but people coming here is rather rare."

Strangely, she was surprised that he didn't think of her as weak like regular girls, but his assumption might have been because she'd been wearing her armor. Strangely heartened by this logical reasoning, she said, "I'm looking for a mage who's said to be stronger than most S-class mages. He's unaffiliated to any of the known magic guilds. My own magic guild, Fairy Tail, sent me to confirm his existence and determine his threat potential."

The man smiled beneath the darkness of his hood before saying calmly, "Well, I'm not a mage, per se, so I'm guessing that you've found your target."

'_I knew it_!' the redheaded swordswoman smiled grimly. '_This man… he's the one whose power might as well rival Zeref?! Jellal…_'

Snapping out of her thoughts, she said, "Very well. I challenge you to a duel."

"A challenge, you say?" the hooded man parroted, intrigued, before shrugging in fatalistic acceptance. "Very well, I accept. But I would first like to know my challenger's name."

"I am Erza Scarlet, from the Fairy Tail Magic Guild of Fiore," she said proudly.

"Well, I'm glad to meet you, Erza-_chan_," the hooded man said cavalierly, apparently not noticing the way she'd blushed as he bowed to her formally at the waist. "Naruto Uzumaki, displaced _shinobi_ at your service."

Having never heard the word _shinobi_ before, she was about to ask before the hooded man answered her question.

"I am a _ninja_, a mercenary to be hired to do any and all kinds of jobs," he shrugged. "I work in the same way that mages like you would take any task available."

She found herself frowning. The way that he'd mentioned that _ninja_ took all kinds of jobs implied that they also took jobs usually taken by Dark Guilds. "But…" Naruto added, popping his neck, "…I've more or less retired from that life. Now, I'm a nomad."

"But enough about me and my story," he said, standing up and stretching a bit. Turning to her, he bowed grandly and gestured to a nearby clearing. "Shall we?"

She stood up and magically equipped her favorite one-handed sword, entering a battle stance. But before they could start, the _shinobi_ called out. "I'm saying sorry in advance."

Frowning, she asked, "Why are you sorry? We haven't even started, yet."

A puff of smoke revealed a _katana_ with an ornate oval black guard and a braided gray wrap on its hilt. The scabbard was also black, made of simple traditional lacquered wood with a crimson cord hanging near its mouth. Pulling the _katana_ out with his right hand, he held it parallel to the ground, its jet-black blade seemingly absorbing the light around it.

The hooded man replied, "I said that I'm sorry because I'm apologizing in advance for beating you in combat."

Erza twitched in irritation. Who exactly was this nameless mage, that he could just insult her and get away with it? "**Kansō... Tenrin no Yoroi**!" she shouted, as her Heart Kreuz glowed and morphed. She reappeared out of a flash of light, wearing a new set of elaborately gleaming silvery armor and wielding a sword in each hand.

All Naruto could do was whistle at the sight. Not only was Erza beautiful and sexy, but her hair reminded him of his mother. As a compliment, but also to rile her up, he asked, "Did you know that you look beautiful in that armor?"

The unexpected compliment made her blush and stammer before she remembered that she was about to kill this fool for insulting her strength. Reigning in her anger, she took a couple of deep breaths as she scowled at him. Crossing her arms, she charged at him and shouted, "**Trinity Sword**!" as she slashed at the hooded man. A glowing delta-shaped energy wave escaped from the tips of both of her swords and soared towards him, promising death and destruction.

Then the hooded man disappeared, escaping the blast to reappear a few feet behind her in a crouch. As he sheathed his sword, its guard made a loud clicking noise. Erza, shocked at his speed, had no idea what just happened. Before she could ask him, her swords quickly splintered into shards and her armor fell to pieces. She counted herself lucky to have been wearing underwear, otherwise Naruto would've seen her naked.

To make matters worse, though, he commented on her predicament. "My, my, my; an angel in that armor and so sexy when you're not wearing it."

She could feel the heat rushing to her face. She had no idea whether to be embarrassed at her humiliation or enraged at the man's perverted comment. But just as she was about to act on both emotions, he vanished in a swirling whirlwind of dust and leaves.

His body gone, his voice reached her ears on the wind. "We'll meet again, _Benihime-chan_…"

**{Flashback End}**

"…and that's how Erza was defeated for the first time in her life," Mirajane sighed. "If she heard rumors about a strange mage, she'd automatically go and investigate, to find out if that Naruto the _shinobi_ character was the source of the rumor. If he **was** indeed there, she'd challenge him again, and the results would always be the same; she'd be defeated, her swords broken, with her armor shattered into pieces and leaving her in her underwear."

"I see… but who is he?" Lucy asked. "How strong is he to play with Erza-_san_ like that?"

"That's the problem," the Demon of Fairy Tail sighed. "A lot of different Guilds want him to join them, but whenever they sent mages out to recruit him, he'd beat them up pretty badly before dumping their bodies in random places. When simple offers didn't work, they began resorting to bribery. Even the King of Fiore tried, but Naruto would simply refuse all incentives. As for us… we only sent Erza that one time, when he beat her for the first time, but all the other times he humiliated her was because she kept after him for a rematch."

"I see…" Lucy murmured thoughtfully. As those words left her mouth, a stranger entered the front door and all the fighting stopped. The stranger headed towards the bar, and the mages there noticed that he was quite tall, about six feet tall or so. He had on a black cloak with a hood that shrouded his face in darkness. Erza was silent, gritting her teeth in impotent anger. She knew this man, and was angry with him about something.

The slightly muffled sound of clanking metal indicated that he wore armor on his body. As he sat on a stool in front of Mirajane, she said, "Welcome to Fairy Tail, sir, how can I help you?"

The hooded man's voice was cold and deep. "I'd like a beer first, and then talk to your master about joining your guild."

A dead silence fell upon the room, a split-second before chaos erupted.

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 2

**Fairy Tail's Shinobi**

This is another fixed story by the great Reikson. I hope you guys enjoy and please review.

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: "_Naruto"_

Thoughts: _'Then I will break that curse. If there's such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'_

Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "**Doton Jutsu, Ice Make Shield**!"

Demons and Dragons Speech: **"Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"**

Demons and Dragons Thinking: _**"The question is what to do with him…"**_

The Kingdom of Fiore is a neutral country of seventeen million people.

It is a world of magic.

Magic, bought and sought every day, is an integral part of the people's lives.

Moreover, there are those who use magic as their occupation. These people are mages or sorcerers.

The mages belong to various guilds, and perform jobs on commission.

There are a large number of guilds throughout the country of Fiore.

In addition, there lies a certain guild in a certain city.

This guild hosted legends in times long ago, and would continue to host more such legends long into the future…

…and its name is Fairy Tail!

**Chapter Two: Naruto's Arrival**

**August 7****th**** X784**

The man frowned. "What's wrong? You guys deaf or something? I said that I'd like some beer and that I want to join your guild. Where's your master, anyway?"

Someone said, "Naruto…" The cloaked man named Naruto turned and found Erza glaring at him. "Ah, Erza-chan, I didn't see you there. Yo!" Then turning back to his drink, he ignored her and everyone else as he continued to drink his beer. She seethed in anger as he continued ignoring her. Finally, she lashed out at him with a punch but he intercepted it with a single finger without even looking at her. He downed the rest of his drink in one gulp and turned to look at her. She somehow managed to get the impression that he wasn't pleased with her, probably because he said, "Can't a guy drink a beer in peace?" before pushing her fist away with his finger.

As she made an effort to calm down, she remarked, "I thought you said that you'd never join a guild because you're not a mage."

"I **said** that I'm not a mage, but I **didn't** say that I'd **never** join a guild," Naruto sassed her, receiving another beer from Mirajane. "Also, I said that I'm not a mage so much as I'm a warrior, a _special_ warrior. But where's your master, anyway? I need to speak to him or her immediately."

Getting up, he dropped five-thousand Jewels onto Mirajane's tray and said, "Keep the change."

Mirajane nodded and thanked him as he turned to Erza. "So, Erza-_chan_, where's your master?"

The men in the room began talking amongst themselves. This weirdo in the cloak could stop Erza's punch with one finger, and then he talks to her as if they were old friends? Who was he?

Natsu had fire in his eyes. He wanted to challenge this stranger that could stop Erza's meanest punch with one finger, because this new guy **had** to strong. Opening his mouth, he was about to issue his challenge before a raspy voice fell from the second floor.

"I, Makarov Dreyar, am the master of this here guild." Naruto looked up and saw Fairy Tail's master, Makarov Dreyar. The man was extremely short, and a rather old man. He had dark eyes and had white hair surrounding his balding skull and in a thick moustache, which he hid under a funny jester hat in orange-blue stripes.

"Well, you're a lot smaller than I thought…" Naruto said dryly, making the tiny man spontaneously faceplant himself at the remark. He quickly got back up, coughing into his fist as the guild mages began to giggle among themselves.

"What exactly do you want from me, mister…" he waited for a reply.

"Naruto… Naruto Uzumaki, a humble _shinobi_ at your service," the cloaked man said formally, bowing briefly at the chest. The much-older man returned the gesture with a small nod. Erza twitched as Naruto mentioned the word '_shinobi_' as had become her bad habit. Natsu, Happy, and Gray were quiet, having noticed Erza's anger and not wanting to be a part of it.

Suddenly realizing something, Lucy banged her fist down on the open palm of her other hand. "Wait, then he's the one that Erza couldn't defe-hehhee!" she squealed in fright, rudely cut off as Mirajane suddenly slapped a hand on Lucy's mouth, silencing her before she said something stupid in the heat of the moment.

"Sorry, Lucy," the white-haired woman whispered urgently. "…but can you keep what I told you, to yourself? Erza only told us girls in the guild about Naruto beating her all the time, so none of the guys know."

The poor terrified girl nodded, unable to say anything in the face of Erza fuming with rage.

Naruto, seeing Erza vibrating from the sheer force of her anger, asked her, "How's about we make a bet about our latest fight, Erza-_chan_? But I'll have to wrap up my business with your master before we fight. What do you say?"

She blushed as he caught her in her heated moment. "O-okay," the Titania sputtered, her emotions warring with each other. "…after you finish your business, I will fight you!"

Naruto nodded gravely before turning to face Makarov as he jumped down from the second floor. His next words, "Do you have a place where could talk?" were grave. The old man instantly knew that he had something important to talk about.

The old man nodded. "My office is upstairs," he said, waving a hand towards the second floor balcony. Naruto nodded, following him, and the both of them disappeared in the inner parts of the guild.

The guild members began whispering amongst each other, speculating about the outcome of Erza's fight with Naruto. Natsu shouted eagerly, "Oh, man! He's crazy strong! I'll fight him after Erza! What do you think, Happy?"

Happy said, "Aye! But if he's that strong, then you'll lose! Natsu, you're doomed!"

"What!" the Fire Dragon Slayer shouted, betrayed, as he glared at Happy. The cat-like creature was looking the other way innocently.

Gray then intervened. "Happy's right; you're so weak that you can't even beat me. What hope do you have of beating someone that Erza wants to fight?"

"What did you say, you pervert?!" Natsu roared, angrily shoving his head into Gray's face.

"What did you call me, you hotheaded idiot?!" Gray snarled back.

As the two begin shoving each other, Erza grabbed the two of them and slammed their heads into the nearest wall, knocking them out. Panting in poorly suppressed anger, the redhead ignored them, lost in thought. '_How does he always defeat me_?' she demanded to herself.'_Am I not strong enough? Am I too weak?'_

Elfman made the mistake of opening his mouth where she could see him, and Erza threw him into Mirajane, sending the two of them careening into Freed and Bickslow. She had no idea what happened, she was **still** too lost in thought.

'_He's never used any magic in our fights other than his sword technique_,' she mused analytically. '_If I'm honest, that sword __**is**__ rather unique to my knowledge; I've never seen that design anywhere by any blacksmith_.'

Cana hefted up another barrel of beer for herself, and Erza bisected it absentmindedly, leaving the alcoholic Card Magic user soaked in beer and twitching angrily but otherwise unwilling to infuriate the redheaded swordswoman any further. '_I know that he's powerful, but he's never fought me with any ill-intent. I feel that he's always smiling, even if I've never seen his face. But why does he hide his face_? _Why do I care so much about that_?'

Mirajane noticed her former rival lost in deep thought. She smirked in spite of herself. '_Oh-ho! Somebody has a crush…_' she giggled.

"Erza likes Naruto," Happy sang childishly.

Lucy was surprised that someone so much stronger than Erza could make her look like a child. She looked over at the redhead, noticing that she was lost in thought. Sighing, the blonde Celestial Spirit Mage went to sit back down at her seat in front of Mirajane.

When they reached his office, Makarov jumped over his desk to take his seat. Gesturing to the chair in front of him, Naruto sat down as he pulled down his hood to reveal his face.

He looked like any young man in his late teens but had a unique appearance. He also had shoulder-length golden-blond hair, with his bangs seeming like they could hide his eyes behind them if he wanted to. Surprisingly, he had what appeared to be a trio of horizontal lines on each cheek, reminiscent of fox whiskers. His eyes were a sharp and brilliant blue.

But those eyes… Makarov noticed that Naruto's eyes betrayed a long acquaintanceship with soul-wrenching loneliness. This… _shinobi_, had the air of a hardened warrior about him, hooded in the sadness of a man that had lost everything important to him. The old man finally sighed wearily. For all his faith in humans and magic, his bratty subordinates all had personal trauma in common.

'_Eyes like these should not be on anyone so young_,' the old man mused to himself.'_He reminds me of Erza when she first came here._' Finally, he asked aloud, "What do you need from me, my boy?"

Naruto sighed, leaning back in his chair. "The reason that my powers are so unusual and devastating is partially because I'm from another dimension."

Makarov could feel an eyebrow rise. He was familiar with the concept, because Mystogan had said that he was from Edolas, an alternate and parallel version of Earthland. But he hadn't really thought that places like Edolas, but not Edolas, could also exist. Intrigued in spite of himself, he asked, "What do you mean?"

"My native world is mired in near-constant wars and battles, with very short periods of peace in-between." Naruto's opening statement made Makarov twitch. "I used to belong to a village of mercenaries that were not unlike your own magic guilds, powers and all, but I had to leave in order to insure its safety."

"How so?" the old man asked, curious. All this talk about near-constant warfare gave him a good foundation for his suspicions, but the answer awaiting him only confirmed them.

The blond-haired young man sighed. "My world is 'kill or be killed' and I have my fair share of blood on my hands. We don't have magic like you, but rather _jutsu_ and other _ninja_ techniques. We fight by using an energy produced from within our bodies, what we call chakra. From I've heard of this Eternano stuff that you mages use, it seems similar to a type of nature energy that allows me to enhance my _jutsu_ by several orders of magnitude…"

Makarov felt his eyebrow twitch again. Only two months ago, a wandering mage had stumbled across the remains of a freshly-destroyed Dark Guild. After he alerted the Rune Knights, their preliminary investigation revealed that the guild's master had been obsessed with enhancing magical capacity. A follow-up investigation from the Ten Wizard Saints saw the discovery of research data that hinted at a secondary Eternano reserve in the human body, which drastically enhanced a mage's magical power. The guild master had ordered nine of his best mages to undergo the process, and then joined them as the tenth.

But the process of activating this reserve was excruciating. Further investigation revealed that the guild master alone survived this agonizing process, drastically enhancing his magical powers. But he then slaughtered his subordinates in a berserker rage before falling catatonic, dying of dehydration only a day before the wandering mage had found him. Once the Mage Council learned of this development, they immediately ordered the research data confiscated, and that any attempt to recreate this procedure was to be stamped out.

He snapped out of his thoughts as Naruto said, "…however, I can still use my chakra, so I can use _jutsu_ and even enhance them with nature energy. Ironically, this means that I cannot use magic directly. But I **can** use magical objects, though; probably because I was summoned here magically."

"Summoned?" Makarov asked intently. Mystogan had briefly talked to him about Edolas' powerful Anima magic spell, just enough to worry him. If this _shinobi_ came to Earthland in the same way… "What do you mean by, summoned?"

"I came here about… three years ago, now," Naruto shrugged. "When I found myself here in Earthland, I was in the middle of a circular sealing technique array with a great deal of elaborately-intricate subscript in its architecture."

Popping his neck, he slouched in his chair. "The mage that made this array, what I later learned was called a magic circle, said that he was trying to invent a space-time teleportation spell. Instead, it opened an interdimensional rip through the space-time continuum. I crashed into that tear when I was using my own space-time _jutsu_ back in my dimension."

Makarov grimaced. His childhood experiments with his own magic had beaten a particular lesson into his head; never let spells mix if you can help it. Naruto nodded, having guessed what the old geezer was thinking about.

"Then, before I can ask the mage about the specifics of his spell, a bunch of guys from what he called a 'Dark Guild' attacked us," the blond _shinobi_ sighed bitterly. "During that fight, my body didn't work. Probably because I'd just gotten here and the summoning took quite a toll on my body, but… I could only fight physically, without using chakra at all."

Breathing in deeply, he exhaled noisily. "I beat them all, but I was too late. One of those dark mages had already killed the mage that brought me here, and I didn't even know his name. So I took his body to a nearby town and asked the locals to bury him there. After that, I tried to look for a way home but couldn't find anything for a year. I even went to Era and asked a few questions. They said that there's some ancient time spell on record, but they didn't have anything on space-time magic or even interdimensional magic."

Makarov grimaced at the despair in the young man's voice. "So… you're telling me that you're from an entirely different dimension, then. You're also a superpowered warrior that can use our magic as well. That's a little hard to swallow, but…" he trailed off as he looked up at his forlorn guest. For a man who'd lost everything, the _shinobi_ could hold his faculties together like no one else he'd met in his life.

"I believe you, Naruto," Makarov said. "I'll help you in any way I can, but even I don't know anything about such magic. What I'll do is tell everyone that you're from a faraway land and that your magic is unique. I'm glad that you want to join our family here in Fairy Tail, but I ask only one thing from you."

The blond man turned a questioning gaze up at him. "Please refrain from killing your opponents, because that will make you a dark mage here." As his eyes hardened, Makarov winced somewhat. Naruto had grown up in a realm of combat and had fought a war, where he'd killed his enemy and gotten used to doing just that, and asking him to stop killing was practically an unreasonable demand to any soldier worth his mettle. But when the blond only nodded in agreement, the old man exhaled noisily, having held his breath.

Soldiering on, he added, "You should also keep your life story to yourself until the guild members and I can trust you. But this is still your call, so you can tell anyone about it if you want. Also, I'd like to see how you fight, if you don't mind. By the way, is your magic…? I mean, your _jutsu_… are they destructive?"

Naruto smiled thinly. "My _jutsu_ are only as destructive as I need them to be. That said, my fight with Erza-_chan_ is coming up soon. You could be the judge, see for yourself."

'_Erza-chan_?' the old man thought to himself wryly. '_She lets him call her that already? This boy's amazing_!'

Naruto's voice snaps him out of his stupor. "Are you coming or what, gramps?"

"Okay, okay, hold your horses. Youngsters these days… so annoying," Makarov grumbled.

Meanwhile, everyone had gathered in a clearing behind Guild headquarters. They were waiting for the stranger, Naruto, to get his butt kicked by Erza. Only their female members knew the truth; that Erza was in for quite a fight. They wanted to see if she was really going to have her armor cut into pieces and be left her in just her underwear, even though she said that he did that to her every time they met and wasn't known for lying.

Speaking of Erza, she was waiting in front of the crowd with her arms crossed. Standing next to Mirajane, Lucy leaned in and asked, "Who do you think will win now, Mira-_chan_?"

"I don't know, Lucy," the Demon of Fairy Tail shrugged, giggling. "…but since she's going to fight _that man_, this fight's going to be a great one,"

Gray, now shirtless, then added, "Whoever he is, he can't beat Erza. She's the strongest woman in Fairy Tail."

"Really?!" Lucy sputtered. "She's that strong?! But isn't he the one who-" she suddenly cut herself off, trying not to talk about her guildmate's repeated defeats and humiliation.

Behind Lucy and Mirajane, resident bookkeeper Cana Alberona shouted, "Who are you going to bet on, the new stranger or our own Erza Scarlet?" Fairy Tail promptly erupted in a storm of bets, most people betting on their Titania destroying the newcomer. The ones who bet that the stranger would win were female guild members who'd heard about Erza's many grudge matches, and had a healthy proclivity for gambling when odds were in their favor.

Makarov and the hooded man, Naruto, walked into the middle of the clearing, stopping in front of Erza. She stared at them steadily before popping her knuckles and picking up her favorite broadsword. Then master Makarov said out loud, "This is not just a fight. We have a young man, from a faraway land, who wants to join our guild today. But I want to test his strength beforehand, so I'm using the Erza Scarlet/Naruto Uzumaki fight in order to assess his power."

"One moment, please, master," Naruto asked. A sweep of his arm, and he'd removed his hooded cloak to reveal his face and body to the guild members. He was a tall young man, about six-foot-two, in his late teens or early twenties, with unkempt spikes of blond hair and deep-blue eyes. He had three whiskers-like birthmarks on both his cheeks, which gave him a surprisingly-feral appearance.

He wore a sleeveless black muscle shirt, a pair of black pants, a pair of metal vambraces, a pair of fingerless gauntlets, a pair of black boots, and a black cloth across his forehead that he wore like a bandanna. He was also wearing two weapon pouches on his back-waist.

To a one, every female member of Fairy Tail promptly and spontaneously squealed with hormonal fangirlish glee. Every girl and woman in the guild was drooling over him, hearts in their eyes. The men were shocked; they thought he'd be a normal looking guy.

Lucy had hearts in her eyes as steam blew out of her nose. "He's so handsome!" she squealed. "He looks so sexy and cool!"

Happy shouted in amazement, "Is he a human cat?!"

"Human cat?" Natsu parroted, confused. When he looked at Naruto and saw his whiskers, he realized. "Ohh, I see! He **does** look like a cat! But he looks strong! I'm so fired up! I want to challenge him right now!"

Even Mirajane and Erza couldn't help but blush. Both of them were thinking, '_Look at those arms! His body looks like it's been carved out of stone_!'

Makarov frowned, assessing the situation. '_I didn't know that he'd have that much effect on the guild's women. Even Erza and Mirajane are blushing! This kid's going to break a lot of hearts_.' Shaking his head, he looked at both fighters and said, "Are you two ready?"

Erza snapped out of her musing and nodded, as did Naruto. Both entered their respective battle stances as Makarov shouted, "All right… begin!"

To be continued…


	3. Chapter 3

Hello there guys! Thank you to all my reader and reviewers for their support. I just feel surprised that people found this story awesome and I am glad you did.

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: "_Naruto"_

Thoughts: _'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'_

Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "**Katon Jutsu, Ice Make Shield**!"

Demons and Dragons Speech: **"Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"**

Demons and Dragons Thinking: _**'The question is what to do with him…'**_

The Kingdom of Fiore is a neutral country of seventeen million people.

It is a world of magic.

Magic, bought and sought every day, is an integral part of the people's lives.

Moreover, there are those who use magic as their occupation. These people are mages or sorcerers.

The mages belong to various guilds, and perform jobs on commission.

There are a large number of guilds throughout the country of Fiore.

In addition, there lies a certain guild in a certain city.

This guild hosted legends in times long ago, and would continue to host more such legends long into the future…

…and its name is Fairy Tail!

**Chapter Three: King VS Queen  
**

**Monday, 7****th**** August X784**

The air was fraught with tension, as Erza 'The Fairy Queen' Scarlet faced herself off against the mysterious newcomer. They could hear the murmurs and whispers, both of them, but ignored the rabble in favor of focusing on their opponent.

Both fighters stood across each other in their respective battle stances. Naruto flexed his fingers somewhat, as Erza spaced her legs in order to gain a better position.

Master Makarov broke the silence. "Okay, are you ready?!" he declared loudly.

Naruto just shook his head. "Before we begin," he began, "…let's make a bet, _Benihime-chan_. Since I'm going to be a member anyways, I'd like to take you out for dinner."

Amidst the dead silence that hung in the air in the wake of his daring proposition, he amended, "Well, that's if I win, anyways. However, if you win, I'll help you in any mission request for a month. What do you say?"

She smiled and said, "But how do I know that you will keep your promise if I win?"

"I always keep my promises or my name isn't Naruto Uzumaki," the blond _shinobi_ said, smirking confidently.

She smiled slightly. "You've got yourself a deal, Naruto Uzumaki-_san_."

"Oh, no, no, Naruto will do just fine," he said modestly. "After all, we're part of the same guild now."

"As you wish, Naruto-_kun_," Erza replied smugly.

Makarov grew tired of their flirting. "Are you two kids done flirting?" he asked them crossly. "We want to see a fight, so fight already!"

The two of them had the decency to blush, slipping back into their respective combat stances.

Shaking his head in mild annoyance, the diminutive master of the Fairy Tail magic guild grumbled under his breath about young brats and their flirting. Clearing his throat, he asked again, "So, are you ready?"

Both Erza and Naruto nodded. Makarov stepped back and shouted, "Then… begin!"

Erza immediately yelled, "**Kansō: Ken no Mahō**!" Her magic power surrounds her right hand, a sword emerging from the array. The weapon was a long sword of bluish steel, measuring four feet long and with an angel-wing guard and a cubic pommel. Grabbing the sword hilt, the redheaded swordswoman swung it around, moving the sword to her side, parallel to and above the ground.

Naruto smiled slightly. He responded by flexing his left hand and summoned a _katana_ with a puff of smoke. Fairy Tail's members, including their master, found themselves shocked by the display. They'd never such magic before. Lucy Heartfilia was the first to find her voice. "Didn't he say that he wasn't a mage?" she sputtered. "How did he use a **Kansō**,then? He even has a **Ken no Mahō** like Erza!"

Master Makarov answered her. "Naruto does not use Eternano-type magic like we do, but rather a similar energy that only his people can produce from their bodies. They call it chakra, and its many applications are varied and much more versatile than magic." The guild members were shocked, staring at the blond _shinobi _and his summoned weapon in dumbfounded amazement.

His _katana_ had an ornate oval silver guard and had a braided crimson material wrapping up its hilt. The sheath was white, made up of what seemed like traditional lacquered wood, and featured several metallic silver ornaments on its far end. Erza quirked an eyebrow, not recognizing the sword that he was using against her.

Naruto held his sword in his right hand, waggling his left index finger at her in a 'come-hither' gesture, but then again he always did have more balls than brains. Erza was also never a woman to back down from a challenge, as seen when she dashed quickly towards him.

In a flash of light, she sliced down at him with a vertically descending slash. But he sidestepped her attack, making her overexert herself before rapping the tip of his scabbard against her wrist and making her drop the long sword by reflex.

Not to let Naruto get a chance to attack her while exposed, she used her **Kansō** magic to replace her long sword with a pair of short swords that she held in a reverse grip. She attacked with the right-hand sword, with a slash coming up from below but Naruto stopped her attack with his scabbard, surprising her by the fact that a scabbard was able to stop her sword. However, she was undeterred, flicking her left wrist in order to flip the sword in hand so that she could use the weapon conventionally, quickly following up with a high-to-low slash with her left sword.

But Naruto had other ideas. Drawing his _katana_ in a flash, he bared just enough of its blade to catch her second sword, and had effectively pinned her again. Before she could break his hold on her, Naruto shifted his weight forward. A snap-kick to her stomach sent her flying back as he sheathed his _katana_ again, staring at her expectantly.

Erza felt the wind rush out of her lungs from the force of Naruto's kick. She'd felt that blow, even though her basic Heart Kreuz armor. Flipping in midair, she landed gracefully on her feet, tried to take a deep breath, and promptly winced in pain. Looking down, she grimaced as she noticed the deep dent in her armor, along with the throbbing agony that came with severely bruised ribs.

"Maa, maa, _Benihime-chan_, you should take this fight more seriously," Naruto mused lackadaisically. "I won't be holding back any more. Prepare yourself," he warned her, fully unsheathing his _katana_.

Makarov and the rest of Fairy Tail alike all gasped, their jaws dropping at his declaration. Contrary to his performance thus far, he was still holding back. None of them had thought that someone could compete with Erza in a swordfight, much less put her on the ropes. What surprised them even more was the dent in her armor testifying to his physical strength, and Erza was having problems breathing.

The redheaded Titania of Fairy Tail glared at her opponent, but knew that he was right. She'd have to finish this fight, and fast, but he would not give her victory so easily.

"**Kansō…** **Kureha no Yoroi**,"she rasped, and her armor began to glow with a golden light before materializing a suit of dark armor into existence, in all of its foreboding glory.

Naruto smiled slightly at her maneuver. "Maa, maa, _Benihime-chan_, you're all dark and sexy and bewitching in a suit of black metal feathers. Deliciously suitable for your fashion sense, I'd say," he teased, her lips curling into a genial, yet perverted leer.

Even though the male guild members agreed with him, they'd have never admitted as such in front of her, having feared her wrath. Happy, Natsu, and Gray instantly shouted, "Are you out of your mind? Do you want to die?!"

Then they all face-faulted once they noticed that Erza was blushing, embarrassed. She was blushing so badly that her face could've matched the color of her hair. But she noticed her fellow Fairy Tail members whispering amongst themselves and gave them all her worst glare, cowing them into a fearful silence. Naruto's amused chuckling snapped her out of her funk. "Well, then… shall we let begin?"

When she nodded in determination, he added, "Then come at me as though you're going to kill me."

She could feel her eyes widen. "Are you…" she began, unsure if she wanted to know the answer to her unspoken question.

"I know that you naturally hold yourself back, because your precious rules forbid you from killing," he mused aloud. His face was deceptively smooth; she could taste his irritation at such a rule, and yet… she snapped out of her assessment when he added, "However… you cannot touch me unless you come at me as though you're trying to kill me."

The redheaded swordswoman nodded. "All right then, Naruto, but don't blame me when you lose," she said, dismissing the short swords in favor of the scimitar that usually came with this particular set of armor. She grabbed the new weapon with both hands and held it out before her, in what he recognized as the _migichūdan no kamae_, a classic _kenjutsu_ stance that indicated she was right-handed.

Naruto only chuckled at the absurdity of Erza's assertion before his usual cheerfulness gave way to an icy hardness. Bending his knees and crouching slightly, Naruto slid his right leg forward into a _battōjutsu_ stance, making Erza frown as she realized that the _shinobi_ was presenting a minimal profile to her. '_He's minimizing his openings, tightening up his guard_,' she realized.

Those glacial blue eyes, betraying no emotion, sent a cold shiver down everyone's back. For some reason, everyone there suddenly knew that Naruto was so much scarier than Erza. This fight was about get serious, and both fighters assessed each other with a calculative gaze.

Going on the attack, Erza charged Naruto with far-greater speed than she had ever previously displayed before. The blitzkrieg surprised him, which nearly cost him the fight as she slashed at his head. He leaned back to avoid her attack but was surprised to discover that she'd chained her attack into a series of sword slashes. He managed to dance away from her attacks, but the last one was too close for comfort, prompting him to jump back. The sensation of liquid running down his face had him reaching up to dab at his cheeks, and his fingers came away bloody. She'd nicked him on his cheek, making him frown as he realized something.

"I congratulate you," he said coolly. "Cutting me is a testament to your dedication and skill in armed mêlée combat. No one back home had managed to draw my blood in combat ever since I turned seventeen. Thank you for showing me that I've gotten soft." Turning to look at her, he smirked. "Allow me to repay your kindness."

He shot forward like a rocket, leaving a crater where he'd been standing. She stood her ground, with her sword held low in _gedan no kamae_ as she waited for him. In the blink of an eye, he'd yanked out his _katana_ and slashed at her, which she met successfully. The loud clanging din of clashing metal rang out across the street as their eyes met. Her lips peeled into a grimace as he continued to press the full weight of his considerable physical strength against hers. Their swords ground against each other, both of them vying for supremacy.

'_What ridiculous physical strength_!' she managed to think to herself. Naruto's eyes were cold, dead, and the sheer weight of his presence seemed to bear down upon her with all the implacable fury of nature itself. Her mind's eye flashed back to Jellal, and how he'd become changed by what he called 'the spirit of Zeref' and had become cold and murderous. Yet now, here she stood, facing off against another man with those same dead eyes proclaiming the capacity and will to kill.

Lost in thought, she almost didn't see Naruto using his sword scabbard to try and to bash her head in for a knockout blow. He swung at her, but she managed to push back his sword and managed to miss the very tip of his sword scabbard by a centimeter. In that critical moment, he left his back exposed and she saw an opportunity to cut his back open with a falling slash. Taking the chance, she took it but got caught off-guard as he suddenly flipped his grip on the sheath, slamming down on her descending sword. Her weapon recoiled off the ground from his sudden attack, and he went on the offensive.

Having managed to reverse his course in midair, Naruto had left Erza wide open after pinning her sword arm against his continued offensive. As his scabbard swept past her vision, his _katana_ now fell upon her, leaving her defenseless. She only just managed to jump back as his sword nicked her just below the ribs and drew blood. He saw the whole spectacle and smiled thinly. '_She's fast_,' he mused._ 'I've gotten soft, no doubt, but she's still very impressive_.'

She stood there for a minute, panting heavily. Her lungs burned in her chest and her muscles seemed to creak under the strain that she was putting on herself. Looking over at Naruto, she glared at him but only his smile widen into a broad grin. Noticing that the only thing she did to him was the nick on his cheek, which had somehow healed itself and had left behind dried blood.

She frowned as she staggered briefly, using her sword to balance herself. Now that she had time to think, she realized that he didn't even have the decency to look winded. Here he was, fighting her to within an inch of her life, and looking as though he hasn't a care in the world. How insulting!

'_What is he_?_'_ she thought to herself, her right hand tightening its grip on her sword. '_Why is he so strong? Even now, I can feel that he's still holding back… a lot._'

As though he knew about her anger over their difference in strength, Naruto called out to her. "Hey, what's wrong, Erza? You mad?"

That was the last straw. Erza flared her magic in a tide of crimson fire, even as her killing intent spiked drastically. She shrieked, "I'm going to wipe that smug grin off your stupid face, _shinobi_!" But her ultimatum only made his smile widen even further, redoubling her rage.

She blasted toward him using her magic, and their swords met in a new cycle of clashing swords. Naruto had a full-blown feral grin on his face, while Erza was having trouble maintaining her current speed. She noticed that he was still holding back, given that he was only parrying or dodging her attacks and letting them miss him by the barest of inches. He was deliberately keeping himself only slightly faster than her, which made her grit her teeth. '_What will it take to faze him_?!' she shrieked to herself.

Then Naruto swept his _katana_ down, trapping her own scimitar beneath his weapon, before lashing out with a sidekick that sent her reeling back several steps and effectively disarmed her. He then bounced off his right foot, jumping towards her in a high-velocity dash, his _katana_ posed to slash her in half at the waist. Now unarmed, and unable to face him on equal grounds in hand-to-hand combat because of his immense strength, Erza did the best next thing.

She ran towards him and fell to her knees, bending over backwards at the waist just enough to dodge his sword as she began sliding towards her own weapon. His attack missed her by centimeters, but the sheer force of the vacuum left behind in its wake suddenly exploded and sent her body tumbling. She finally careened to a stop near her own sword, promptly grabbing it by the hilt and holding it at about head-height. Naruto's smile deepened somewhat in the face of her _hassō-no-kamae_, feeling nostalgic for those days of _kenjutsu_ training under Mifune's personal tutelage.

Fairy Tail was so obsessed with watching Erza get her head handed to her that they completely failed to notice that the spectacular fight had drawn the people of Magnolia Town. Amongst these curious lookie-loos was a very eccentric reporter who was screaming, "THIS IS SO COOL! WHAT A COOL FIGHT!"

This was Jason, a star-struck reporter for Sorcerer Magazine. He'd just arrived at the Fairy Tail Guild to see if he could finagle an interview, but went off-guard by the fight. He was surprised to see a young man who could match Erza move for move. Taking a couple of good pictures, he quickly began running back to Sorcerer Magazine headquarters, repeatedly shouting, "COOL! A POWERFUL NEW MAGE!"

Lucy perked up. "Did anyone hear anything strange just now?" she asked distractedly, looking around.

Next to her, her blue-haired Guild mate Levy McGarden only shook her head. Shrugging, Lucy turned back to the impressive battle in front of them.

At first, Naruto's battle with Erza seemed to be a beautiful and mesmerizing dance. To the experienced eye, however, Erza was struggling to keep up in this deadly game of clashing wills and was losing. Metal crashed against metal, as sparks flew, and the two of them vanished in a blur of speed.

Suddenly, the tempo of the battle skyrocketed, as the clashing swords were now little more than blurs and now accompanied by the shrieks of clashing metal grinding against each other. This cacophony was earsplitting, forcing the entire audience to plug their ears in an attempt to preserve their hearing. Gray Fullbuster mused to himself that this noise reminded him of birds shrieking in chorus. As light danced across the two clashing blades, like firecrackers exploding in the dead of night, sparks flared into existence amidst the dueling swords like the blinking lights of fireflies, and faded just as quickly.

Fairy Tail was awestruck at this display of raw speed and sheer power.

They could hear the sounds of the constant and reverberating clashing of blades.

They could feel the wind surging in the void left behind by their attacks as the blades cut through the air.

They could see craters in the road, caused by the sheer force of both Erza and Naruto landing on the ground with monstrous force and jumping high into the air with just as much power, and deep gouges caused by sword strokes that had missed each other and instead tore deep furrows into the soil.

They were scared of having another Erza hanging around to scare the living daylights out of them.

Natsu was awestruck at the sheer ferocity and violence of the fight, and was just as fired up about his imminent fight with Naruto.

Happy was terrified, since Naruto was clearly stronger and more fearsome than Erza was, and she could already pummel Natsu into the ground even if she was at her worst. Naruto looked as though he could kill Natsu accidentally if pushed into a fury.

Gray also wanted to fight Naruto, but thought that challenging the blond titan was a death wish.

Lucy was also scared but she respected Naruto, especially since he could push Erza to her limits. She even thought that they'd make a perfect couple. A devious plot began to formulate in her head as she smiled. She'd file it away for later and ask for Mirajane's help then. She had no idea that Mirajane had the same devious plan as Lucy.

Fairy Tail's master, Makarov Dreyar, was calculating and analytical in the face of Naruto's stunning performance; a rare mindset for him. '_I thought that he might be able to bring Erza to a draw, but I never thought that he could be strong enough to actually toy with her like this. He hasn't used any on his so-called '_jutsu_' yet, and his physical strength is already an order of magnitude greater. Just how powerful __**are**__ his people?_'

The pair was still clashing swords, their faces a study in contrast. Naruto was smiling as if he'd just won a sweepstakes, all while dodging Erza's angry swipes. On the other hand, Fairy Tail's Titania had a murderous expression on her face, as if she'd like nothing better than to carve her yellow-haired opponent into chunks.

Nevertheless, she was smiling inside. She'd never had so much fun fighting anyone before. She'd found her equal in battle, but she still didn't understand him. '_Why would he be interested in me_?' she wondered idly.

Then she snapped out of her battle haze when Naruto called out to her, "Okay, _Benihime-chan_, I think that this is enough for today. What say you? We finish this with one last move?"

Panting from the sheer effort of the fight, her lungs greedily sucking in as much fresh air as she could take in, Erza nodded mutely. Her endurance was reaching its limits, and she was surprised to discover that Naruto was exhausted too; betraying his condition by the way that his breathing had become slightly heavier.

By this time, they'd been clashing for the last two hours, and their bodies were screaming for relief. She nodded, panting as she managed out, "Okay… okay, Naruto… one last charge."

He nodded, sheathed his _katana_ in its scabbard. They both walked towards each other, assessing the other standing before them only twenty feet away.

Then they both fell into a _kenjutsu_ stance.

Naruto took up his _battōjutsu_ stance again, while Erza slid her sword behind her in a _waki-gamae_, copying her opponent in minimizing her openings and bolstering her defense.

An eternity seemed to pass between the two of them. The tension was high, as Elfman took this to whisper to Cana about the ancient and truly manly tradition of the final _kenjutsu_ charge, but she didn't appreciate his words. Just as she was ready to slug him, the wind picked up and sent a leaf flitting in-between Naruto and Erza facing off against each other.

Just as the leaf hit the ground, the two of them charged each other, yelling incoherently.

"**Uzumaki Kenjutsu-Ryū… Rasenshinkūgiri**!" Naruto roared, pulling his _katana_ out and sweeping it out at Erza in a horizontal slash.

"**Kureha… Gessen**!" Erza shrieked, her sword lashing out in a cross-shaped formation of destructive cutting power.

A blinding flash of light and a decent-sized explosion later, the two of them were standing where their opponent had just been standing. Their backs were to each other, their swords parallel to the ground.

For five agonizing seconds, time seemed to stop. The spectators all held their breath; tension over the outcome was high. Someone had begun taking bets on the fight, about maybe five minutes into Erza's epic sword fight with Naruto, and many people stood to clean up on the results.

Then it happened. Erza fell forward, stabbing her sword into the ground to try to keep her from falling completely. Her armor suddenly had crisscrossed white lines across its entirety, which lengthened until they reached each other just before the whole suit of armor fell apart and disappeared, leaving behind a black sports bra and boy shorts that protected her modesty.

As she fell to her hands and knees, her dark brown eyes widened as she felt blood begin trickling down her torso and her back. Meanwhile, the perverts in the crowd passed out with spontaneous bloody noses, even as other people began arguing over their winnings and/or losses.

Naruto swabbed his sword on his shirtsleeve, cleaning off any blood that he might have gathered, and sheathed his _katana_ into its scabbard with a loud click. As if on cue, Erza passed out and fell, only to have Naruto cross twenty feet in the blink of an eye so that he could grab her before she hit the ground.

Laying her across his lap, he noticed the presence of a freshly bleeding cut, long and shallow, running across her torso. He sighed and raised his hands, bathing them in the green fires of medical chakra, and hovered over the two light wounds on her belly and the single wound on her lower back.

Under the majesty of medical chakra, her wound sealed itself up and left no scar visible. Naruto hadn't put anywhere close to his usual power into this _Rasenshinkūgiri_, and he'd still managed to generate a vacuum blade that had nearly cut Erza in half at the waist. If he hadn't made sure to keep his _katana_ from actually touching her body, he definitely would've killed her.

Still, the fact that she'd made him resort to such a powerful technique was a point in her favor. She definitely possessed an incredible amount of strength and skill to her. Probably enough to give Killer B, or even the _samurai_ of Iron Country, a run for their money in a _kenjutsu_ match.

He was having a hard time not blushing as he healed her, given that she was wearing little more than a tomboy's version of women's underwear. Sweeping her up into her arms, he carried her like a bride on her wedding day and brought her to her fellow guild members. He had no idea that she was smiling at him.

The people of Fairy Tail, who'd frozen earlier, came running up to check if she was all right. Amidst the general yelling and carrying on, a growing tide of anger began to rise over the fact that he'd hurt her.

"Shut up, you idiots!" Makarov roared, defusing the situation. "She's just sleeping now! Mira-_chan_, could you come up here and take Erza to her room?"

"Of course, master," Mirajane, the Demon of Fairy Tail, said happily.

The diminutive man turned to Naruto. "An excellent fight, Naruto-_kun_," he praised. "So… do you still want to join Fairy Tail?"

Naruto smiled. "I think… that I'm going to like joining up with you lunatics," he sniggered.

Makarov threw back his head and laughed hysterically as the rest of Fairy Tail cheered and whooped, generally celebrating his decision.

To be continued…

AN: Thank you Reikson for your help.


	4. Chapter 4

Hello there guys! Thank you to all my reader and reviewers for their support. I just feel surprised that people found this story awesome and I am glad you did. I know you think I have over powered Naruto but shinobi are much stronger than mages. Moreover, Naruto is equal to Itachi when he was that age due to fighting many S-class ninja of Akatsuki and the Fourth Ninja World War. His mindset and his physical combat ability are naturally high due to the life he leads. How am I over powering him if there are people like Hashirama Senju, Uchiha Madara around? There is also a reason why he is so strong but that would be a spoiler so wait and see. I am not trying to weaken the Mages but most of them are one-dimensional with exception to Erza. This is the beta'd and revised version thanks to Reikson-sama.

* * *

**Fairy Tail's Shinobi**

* * *

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: "_Naruto"_

Thoughts: _'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'_

Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "**Katon Jutsu, Ice Make Shield**!"

Demons and Dragons Speech: **"Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"**

Demons and Dragons Thinking: **_'The question is what to do with him…'_**

* * *

The Kingdom of Fiore is a neutral country of seventeen million people.

It is a world of magic.

Magic, bought and sought every day, is an integral part of the people's lives.

Moreover, there are those who use magic as their occupation. These people are mages or sorcerers.

The mages belong to various guilds, and perform jobs on commission.

There are a large number of guilds throughout the country of Fiore.

In addition, there lies a certain guild in a certain city.

This guild hosted legends in times long ago, and would continue to host more such legends long into the future…

…and its name is Fairy Tail!

* * *

**Chapter 4 – New Demon King of Fairy Tail**

**Monday, 7th August X784**

After the fight with Erza, Makarov had accepted him in to the guild. As they spoke privately on the second floor, the old man began. "Naruto, I know that there's more to your story than what you've told me. But, almost everyone here is running from a dark past, so I won't ask."

Naruto sighed. "Thank you, old man. Trusting you or the guild isn't the problem, but rather…"

Makarov waved him off. "I **said** that there's no need for you to explain yourself, Naruto. Nevertheless, we're a guild built on trust, friendship, and loyalty, so you might want to consider talking about yourself at some point in the future."

Then he frowned. "I also need to talk to you about your strength and rank," he added. "Fighting Erza outside just now, that definitely didn't show me everything that you could do. You're stronger than she is, and she's an S-class mage. Beating her the way you did, on so many occasions… you're definitely S-class. You might be even stronger than Laxus, Mystogan, or even Gildarts."

"Are they the strongest mages here after you?" Naruto asked. He'd noticed that the old man had spoken of those three.

The old master of Fairy Tail nodded. "After me, Fairy Tail's strongest include Gildarts Clive, then my grandson Laxus, and then Mystogan. You'll meet them later, anyways. In any case, Naruto, you're already beyond any bog-standard S-class mage. I'll have to classify you as S-class soon, but I have to test you for a couple of weeks with normal requests and jobs first."

Naruto nodded. "Whatever's best, old man," he said, making the tiny guild master grin.

Jumping up to stand on the second-floor balcony railing, Makarov shouted, "Listen up, idiots! Do fairies really have tails? Do they even exist? Like them, this place is an eternal mystery, a never-ending adventure! The trials and tribulations of life make us who and what we are! For that, we must grow and move forward onto a new day, every day!"

Gesturing behind him, the rest of the guild noticed Naruto walk up from behind the tiny old man, and rest his forearms on the railing. "Now, let's welcome our newest member, Naruto Uzumaki! Let's drink to his health!" Makarov roared boisterously, and everyone roared in approval of his orders.

Naruto smiled at the warm welcome from the other guild members. '_They're quite lively, aren't they_?'

Once Makarov left the Guildhall for some business, a brawl erupted between several members. Naruto walked between the fighting people with ease, dodging punches and kicks and even flying people.

Once he made his way to Mirajane, the white-haired girl asked him, "Naruto-san, where would you like to have our mark?"

As Naruto reached for her, a mug came flying out of nowhere, soaring towards her head. He caught it without even looking at it as he replied, "Well, I'd like to have it on my right shoulder in black, Mirajane-chan."

She frowned somewhat. "Naruto-san, please call me Mira like everyone does. You're one of us now."

"Then feel free to call me Naruto, or even Naruto-kun if you must," the blond _shinobi_ mused. "Calling me Naruto-san makes me feel old."

Perking up, she chirped, "Okay, Naruto-kun! Here you go!"

"Thank you, Mira-chan. Can I ask you something?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know a piece of land that I can buy? Somewhere close to the guild?"

"As a matter of fact, I do. Why do you ask, Naruto-kun?"

"As you know, I used to be a nomad," he shrugged expansively. "But now that I've joined Fairy Tail, I have to have somewhere to live, don't I?"

"Oh, that's right; we don't have a male dormitory anymore," she realized. "Okay, then, this is where you go…" Taking some paper from the bar counter, she scribbled something on it. He nodded his thanks and got up to leave.

"Hurry up and go before Natsu challenges you…" the Demon of Fairy Tail called after him. Naruto smiled at her, waving goodbye as he vanished in an explosion of smoke that left her wide-eyed. Was that a teleportation spell?

Natsu came up to Mirajane, yelling, "Mira-chan! Where's that super-strong sword guy at?"

"Oh, you mean Naruto-kun?" she smiled. "You just missed him. He left to do something important."

"Mira-chan, what is he if he's not a mage?" Natsu asked her, his face grave.

"Naruto-kun is a _shinobi_, a _ninja_ of singular capacity," Mirajane said coldly. "He's powerful, too, so don't you fight him, Natsu," she warned the Fire Dragon Slayer. "You've seen him defeat Erza and you still can't defeat her."

"A _ninja_? You mean, he's a real _ninja_?!" Natsu gasped. "Like the ones that I've heard about?"

"He looks like a real _ninja_ to me, Natsu. Nin-nin!" Happy exclaimed, forming a ram sign with his paws.

"That's so cool, Happy Nin-nin! But I still want to fight him now!" Natsu whined, forming the same seal.

"He'll beat you faster than anything Erza could do, Natsu!" Happy cried amidst the fish in his mouth, giggling as usual.

"What?! Why you…" Natsu growled, chasing Happy.

"I wonder what Naruto-_kun_ is up too?" Mirajane idly wondered aloud.

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto was examining the land that he'd acquired, and smiled as he realized that he'd found exactly what he was looking for, and was about a kilometer west of Fairy Tail headquarters. But this place still surprised him. Buying the land was easy and they hadn't asked for anything but the payment money. But he **did** end up spending more money than he'd initially thought.

Nevertheless, he paid up front and in cash. The landowners were even kind enough to tell him about every detail of the land, and they even asked him if he needed a contractor for whatever he was building there. He refused, saying that he'd build the house himself. He even found himself wishing that he'd grown up in Fiore instead of the Elemental Nations, and shook his head to free himself of bad memories.

Walking up to the edge of the plot of land that he now owned, he looked around to see if anyone was there making sure that he was alone. Slipping his hands into a familiar handseal, he said calmly, "**Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**!"

Fifty clones appeared and immediately started to clear the land for construction, removing scattered trees and stones and mowing away grass. Naruto made ten more clones, which transformed into random people, and had them go into town to buy building supplies and necessary materials.

Walking to a different part of the clearing, he stood there as he concentrated his chakra, and went through a series of handseals before shouting, "**Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai Kōtan!**" Massive tree roots exploded from the ground, wrapping themselves around each other as they climbed skyward. Spots of green appeared as bushes, quickly becoming leafy branches that grew into a tree that towered over the entire clearing. If Makarov had been there, he'd remember Tenrō Island, sacred ground of the Fairy Tail magic guild, and the gigantic tree that was its defining feature.

As the tree finished growing, though, Naruto fell to one knee, panting in shock over how much chakra he'd used. "I have **definitely** gone soft," he mumbled, staggering to his feet. Sighing, he nodded to the fifty **Kage Bunshin** waiting nearby, who saluted him before taking in a deep breath and then releasing it as a large and concentrated amount of **Fūton** chakra that they layered onto the _kunai_ in their right hands. Using** Fūton: Shinkūjin**to enhance their weapons, they moved to the giant tree and began slashing off large chunks of its tree. Naruto nodded before vanishing in **Shunshin no Jutsu**, heading back to Fairy Tail headquarters.

* * *

Naruto appeared in front of the bar in an explosion of smoke, shocking everyone into silence. As he walked up to Mirajane, who was running the bar again, Natsu and Happy were yelling something about how his entrance was so cool.

"Yo, Mira-chan!" Naruto said cheerfully to the smiling white-haired girl. "I've been meaning to ask you about available missions or jobs around here. I could use some spending money and I'm bored."

She giggled and pointed to a bulletin board that he hadn't noticed before. "You take something from the request board. You also can do it solo or as a team."

Naruto opened his mouth to say something in reply, but ended up raising a hand to stop a fist aimed at his head with a single finger. He turned and found himself looking at a pink-haired boy who'd just tried to attack him. Frowning, he asked, "Now why'd you go and do that, you little brat?"

Natsu flinched. The blond young man reminded him so much of Erza that he was actually scared. What was worse, Naruto was even scarier than Erza.

Suddenly, an evil and oppressive pressure crashed down upon his body, forcing him to his hands and knees. The pink-haired Fire Dragon Slayer managed to look up, and his eyes widened as he noticed a horned black _hannya _mask appear out of thin air above Naruto's head. The mask had a pair of purple eyes with three circles extending away from crimson pupils and had three _tomoe_ on each circle. Two ivory white fangs emerged from its lower jaw, from behind closed lips that had a misty black aura escaping its confines. Natsu was face-to-face with a terrifying image and paralyzed by a murderous intent that threatened to strangle everyone in the guildhall.

"Don't try that again, brat," the blond _shinobi_ said coldly. "I'd really hate having to break my foot off in your ass after I finish kicking it all over the place." In that moment, a dark chill ran down the spines of everyone in the guildhall. Even Gray, who'd trained in freezing cold environments, couldn't keep himself from shuddering at the level declaration that promised so much pain.

Mirajane was blushing, feeling a different kind of shiver that ran down her spine and heated up her body. Her heart was racing, and she felt giddy and innocent. '_That was so cool and evil_!' she squealed to herself.'_I think I'm in love! I'm so hot and bothered by this deliciously evil and wicked aura_ _that_ _I don't know if I should set him up with Erza or just take him for myself_!' she giggled.

"Natsu, please apologize now!" Happy wailed, trying not to look at the freaky mask.

This seemed to have snapped the teen out of his terrified trance and he uncharacteristically bowed in apology. "Y- yes, sir, I'm sorry, Naruto-san!"

"Natsu's acting like Happy again!" Lucy sputtered, shocked. "I thought that Erza was the only one who could make him do that!"

Gray, Levy, and everyone else in the guildhall, all shivered at the implications.

Naruto's eyes softened as the oppressive sensation of murderous intent vanished and everyone in the guildhall finally started breathing normally again.

Sighing deeply, the blond _shinobi_ massaged his brow. "It's fine, brat," he grunted. "What you felt was a reflex that happens when I'm suddenly attacked. What do you want?"

"Hey! My name is Natsu, Natsu Dragneel, and you'd better remember it!" the pink-haired Fire Dragon Slayer bellowed, causing everyone to relax again.

Naruto laughed, feeling nostalgic. "Oh, well, I'm sorry, Natsu Dragneel," he said genially. "I forgot that even animals have names. But you still haven't told me what you want from me."

The Fairies murmured among themselves at the abrupt turnaround in Naruto's behavior. They knew that Natsu was about to challenge the _shinobi_ to a fight.

"Naruto, I challenge you to a fight," Natsu said confidently.

"Okay," the blond _shinobi_ shrugged, surprising everyone again.

"Oh, come on! I want to fig- okay? Really?" the pink-haired Dragon Slayer sputtered. He'd never met anyone in Fairy Tail who'd accepted his challenges so readily.

"Master, would you mind if you judge our fight?" Naruto asked.

"Fine, fine," Makarov sighed, scaring the dickens out of everyone in the guildhall because nobody had seen him come back from his errand. "But let's go behind the guild. That way we won't destroy **too** much stuff."

Naruto nodded, vanishing in an explosion of smoke as Natsu ran out of the guildhall with Happy in tow.

The guildhall was silent for a minute. Then Elfman broke it by saying, "I don't know about you guys, but seeing Natsu getting his ass kicked by a real man like Naruto should be quite a show." A stampede promptly erupted, with everyone running for the front door.

When they finally made their way out back, Naruto was already facing down Natsu. The blond _shinobi_ looked unusually calm, while the pink-haired Fire Dragon Slayer had a cocky grin on his face.

Master Makarov stood in between them. "Okay, now are you kids ready? Go!"

"We fight with our bodies and techniques, Natsu-_chan,"_ Naruto teased. "Are you ready?"

"Okay, then… hey!" Natsu shouted, as Naruto jumped back.

"Now you've really pissed me off!" Natsu snarled. "Take this! **Karyū no Hōkō**!" Breathing in deeply, his cheeks swelled up like a balloon before he blew a large stream of fire at Naruto.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, smiling at the giant fireball of doom that was ready to consume him.

His new friends were shouting at him to get out of the way, but he ignored them and vanished in the fiery explosion that followed. Everyone was shocked into silence. Natsu, Happy, Lucy, and the rest of the gang were worried about their new friend.

They were about to go and see if he was all right, but stopped in their tracks when a familiar voice called out to them. "Hey, what's the matter?" Naruto complained. "You're acting like you're mourning some poor bastard's death."

They all turned about and saw Naruto standing behind them, reading a book. He looked up at them and waved absentmindedly at them. "Yo!"

Everyone spontaneously toppled over at his nonchalant demeanor. Lucy was the first to ask, "How did he get behind Natsu so fast? I didn't even see him move; only that Natsu's attack him. Wait, what exactly is he reading?"

"Maybe it is his magic?" Gray was the first to theorize.

Makarov shared his subordinates' surprise. '_So this is a _jutsu_…_' he thought to himself.'_What else can he do_?'

"This isn't magic," Naruto, answered his guild mates. "I'm not a mage, remember? So I can't do magic in the way that you guys do. What I just showed you, is called _jutsu_; _ninjutsu_, if I'm being specific." He pointed behind them, and they turned to find the remains of a badly charred log.

"I used a basic _ninjutsu_ to escape Natsu's attack," the blond _shinobi_ lectured. "That log is generally used in **Kawarimi no Jutsu**, a very basic _ninjutsu_ in which one replaces their own body with a block of wood, or some other object, when an attack lands on them. This creates an optical illusion that makes the enemy think that their attack was successful. The user can use this brief lapse in the enemy's attention to either attack or flee the battlefield."

As Fairy Tail began talking amongst each other in low tones, even Makarov was surprised. Such a technique could save someone from a fatal blow, and let them escape without a scratch. He could only bemoan the fact that nobody had ever invented a magical version of such a useful ability.

Mirajane had certainly never heard of such a technique. She stared at Naruto hard, only just noticing his power after having ogled his body so shamelessly. Suddenly, she realized that he hadn't used such a technique against Erza during their fight earlier in the day and wondered why.

As if he'd read her mind, Naruto said aloud, "The reason that I didn't use this move while fighting Erza earlier today, was because she always challenges me as a swordswoman and I accepted it as a swordsman. In a duel of swords, I never use anything but sword technique unless my opponent does."

Looking over at Mirajane, he smiled broadly. Heat rushed to her cheeks and she couldn't bring herself to look at him after he'd caught her staring at him as if he was a piece of meat. Chuckling at having given the white-haired young woman her comeuppance, he turned back to Natsu.

"You're not the only one here who can do that, Natsu-_chan_," the blond _shinobi_ teased. "I'll show you my version! **Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!**" As he moved his hands through a series of hand-seals, he breathed in and let his cheeks balloon out. Suddenly exhaling, a stream of flame quickly swelled into a house-sized fireball that rammed into Natsu and exploded with considerable violence. Everyone there noticed that the blast was almost like Fire Dragon Slayer magic, but different. These flames burned with a far-greater heat than anything that the pink-haired fire mage had ever managed, and seemed… controlled, somehow.

But they also knew about Natsu's immunity to fire. Mirajane had thought to warn Naruto about that, but had cast her misgivings aside because she'd never thought that he could create and control fire too.

"Oh, shit, is he all right?" Naruto asked aloud, somewhat concerned. "I only meant to scare him; I didn't think that he'd take that attack head on."

Mirajane and the others laughed, making Naruto raise an eyebrow in curiosity. "What's so funny?" he demanded.

"Oh, nothing, really," the Demon of Fairy Tail giggled. "I just thought about the look on your face when you see it."

"See what?" he demanded. She didn't do or say anything other than smile at him and point at the large conflagration that he'd created.

He eyes widened in surprise when he noticed. That brat Natsu was still standing there, as if nothing had happened, as he was eating the flames. Naruto had to hit himself in the head before he understood what he was seeing; this kid was eating the flaming remains of his Strong Fireball _jutsu_ as if they were some kind of rare delicacy.

Not only is the kid a fire user, but he was immune to flames and can even eat them?

Wait a minute; he gains more power that way!

"Aw, shit!" Naruto swore.

"Thank you for the meal!" Natsu shouted cheerfully. "Your fire is the most delicious flames that I've ever eaten! It's so full of life and energy that I'm all revved up!"

Having no context for what just happened, he turned to Mirajane for answers. "How can he do that?"

She smiled slightly. "Oh, you don't know? Natsu uses _Ka no Metsuryū Mahō_, or Fire Dragon Slayer magic. He was taught by his foster parent, Igneel the Fire Dragon."

Naruto took a second to let that information sink in before a question popped up. "Why would a dragon teach its own adoptive child a type of magic that would kill it?"

Everyone ignored him. He twitched at their reaction but kept quiet.

Natsu ran up to him at his top speed, his right fist engulfed in flames as he hauled his arm back for a punch. "**Karyū no Tekken**!"

However, much to his and everyone else's surprise, Naruto made some very quick movements with his hands. His torso expanded again as he shouted, "**Suiton: Suijinheki**!" Then he vomited up a thick torrent of water that intercepted Natsu's **Karyū no Tekken **and generated a massive blast of steam as the wall of water and the fist of fire collided.

The flame was quick to gutter away as Natsu lost his concentration and lost to the oppressive tidal force of the watery barrier. Drenched and enraged, he sputtered and looked around. "Where did that bastard go?!"

Almost in response to his question, Naruto emerged from the thick steam cloud behind Natsu. His friends tried to warn him, but it was too late.

"Behind you…" the blond _shinobi_ rasped before shouting, "**Suiton: Suirō no Jutsu!**" The steam and vapor left over from his earlier technique suddenly coalesced into existence around Natsu's body as thick tendrils of water. In a heartbeat, the water seemed to expand before quickly closing themselves around the Fire Dragon Slayer's body and imprisoning him in a giant ball of water.

Natsu tried to move but the water felt heavy and thick. Darkness tugged at the edge of his vision as he gasped desperately for air where there was none. He saw Naruto walk up to him and touch the ball itself. He could even hear Naruto say, "You lose, Natsu," before the pink-haired fire mage passed out.

Dispersing the water prison bubble, Naruto grabbed Natsu by the lapels of his jacket and slung the unconscious Fire Dragon Slayer over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes before dumping his body at Makarov's feet.

"So, master, did you like my _ninjutsu_ fighting style?" Naruto grinned. "You've only just scratched the surface of what I can **REALLY** do with this ability."

The old man smiled. "Oh, there's no need, Naruto," he laughed. "All that's left for me to see is your after-action report of the requests that you take before I make you an S-class mage here."

Naruto smiled as he walked back to the guildhall, with everyone else in tow and chatting amongst themselves about their newest member's monstrous power.

The blond _shinobi_ walked up to the Request Board, took three requests that he liked and were all in the city of Magnolia Town, and gave them to Mirajane. The first was a monster south of the town, the second was a gardening request, and the final one was a mail delivery to Hargeon Town and back.

She was surprised to see him take three jobs instead of just one. "Naruto-_kun_, why did you take two more requests?"

He smiled at her, making her blush. "Maa, maa, I'm going to get bored if I did jobs one at a time. I'll even finish all three of them in an hour, just to challenge myself."

She couldn't believe that he could answered her with such nonchalance, but she knew he could do all three jobs in that time if he could somehow look both left and right at the same time. Knowing him, he probably had a _jutsu_ that could do just that. "Okay, then, Naruto-_kun_!" she replied, smiling up at him cheerfully. "Whatever you want! But don't bite more than you can chew!"

Naruto chuckled as she noted down his requests before taking the request slips back and vanishing in a massive explosion of smoke.

"How does he do that?" the Demon of Fairy Tail sighed longingly.

* * *

To be continued…


	5. Chapter 5

Hello there guys! Thank you to all my reader and reviewers for their support. I just feel surprised that people found this story awesome and I am glad you did. I am happy that you guys loved my stories and I will continue to do all I can to finish them with satisfying endings. Please forgive my terrible English, as it is not my mother language. Thank you Reikson, my friend for your great work at proof checking it.

**Fairy Tail's Shinobi**

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: "_Naruto"_

Thoughts: _'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'_

Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "**Katon Jutsu, Ice Make Shield**!"

Demons and Dragons Speech: **"Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"**

Demons and Dragons Thinking: _**'The question is what to do with him…'**_

The Kingdom of Fiore is a neutral country of seventeen million people.

It is a world of magic.

Magic, bought and sought every day, is an integral part of the people's lives.

Moreover, there are those who use magic as their occupation. These people are mages or sorcerers.

The mages belong to various guilds, and perform jobs on commission.

There are a large number of guilds throughout the country of Fiore.

In addition, there lies a certain guild in a certain city.

This guild hosted legends in times long ago, and would continue to host more such legends long into the future…

…and its name is Fairy Tail!

**Chapter 5: First S-Class Mission  
**

**Monday, 17****th**** August X784**

Ten days since Naruto had joined Fairy Tail, and all of Fiore was already buzzing about him. The rumors dated back to when he'd taken his first three job requests, which he finished in exactly forty-five minutes. Instead of resting and relaxing, however, he took another set of requests and went to carry them out. Mirajane was surprised at his speed and the fact that he managed to do all those jobs without a single complaint or property damage incident. The magic world was quick to give him two cognomina that were polar opposites in meaning.

His epithets dated back to when Sorcerer Magazine ran an issue on him, only three days after he'd joined Fairy Tail. The publication did nothing to alleviate public curiosity, even going so far as to nickname him the'Demon King of Fairy Tail' and thus ramping up subscriptions. Their reasoning was drawn from an incident in which he'd destroyed a Dark Guild that had been secretly holding a small town hostage, kidnapping its citizens and selling them as slaves.

Naruto had gotten involved when he'd entered the small town's main tavern in search of refreshments and was nearly bowled off his feet by a little girl who'd run into the bar, crying.

She ran up to her father, the barkeeper, and told him that her mother and older sister had been kidnapped by the dark guild. Naruto, being a good man, asked if he could help. Doubting his abilities, but nonetheless grateful for his offer of assistance, the barkeeper gave Naruto the location of the dark guild's headquarters.

The people of the village followed him, eager to see him fight. Instead, they saw him simply freezing the mages of the dark guild in place with barely a glance. But when he saw the condition of the kidnapped women and children there, he beat the dark mages to within an inch of their lives in a fit of rage. Amidst the sheer brutality of his fury, the blond _shinobi_ had somehow been generating a thick and heavy air of oppressive killer intent while he'd beaten every last one of those dark mages bloody.

As he beat them bloody, the dark mages were screaming about a demon, as if they saw something that the townspeople couldn't. For his part, Naruto smiled coldly as he beat them senseless, and terrified all of the newly-freed villagers in the process. Once he was finished beating the dark mages into unconsciousness, he freed the kidnapped villagers from their cages and promptly replaced them with the mages that he'd just knocked out.

The little girl and her family caught up with him just before he left their village, thanking him for everything that he had done for them. He left the town, just as the Rune Knights arrived in the village in order to control the situation. The townspeople called him 'Demon King,' after his strength, imposing presence, and the brutal beatdown that he'd given those dark mages. The people of Fiore took the nickname to heart, but when they learned that he'd joined the famous magic guild Fairy Tail, they were surprised. After all, he wasn't known for being destructive, not at all like the rampant property damage that Fairy Tail tended to leave in their wake, but the name 'Demon King of Fairy Tail' had been coined.

Ironically, he found their second epithet familiar, having been called the'Yellow Flash of Fairy Tail' after his lightning-fast speed and his bright blond hair. The nickname had come after he'd taken on an important delivery job that he needed to use his full speed in order to complete it on time. The passengers of a local train, which included another reporter from Sorcerer Magazine, saw him run by the train, and actually outrun it, in an incredible show of speed and stamina.

Makarov was pleased, since Naruto was the newest of his most famous mages to do their jobs without any excessive collateral damage whatsoever. His reputation also gave the guild a good name. In his first week at Fairy Tail, the blond _shinobi_ had finished about thirty-plus job requests all by himself, setting a guild record in the process.

His outstanding performance prompted more jobs and requests to be sent Fairy Tail's way. Makarov's only real complaint with Naruto was that the blond refused all interviews. When approached in public, he would vanish in the blink of an eye and leave behind a surprised interviewer and her crew in his dust.

But overall, Naruto was the perfect mage; he carried out his orders to the fullest extent, did his job perfectly, and gained more clients because people wanted to see his freakish strength and speed.

Meanwhile, on the first floor of the Fairy Tail guildhall, Naruto was demolishing the lunch that Mirajane had made for him. He sighed; the available jobs at the guild were very easy, and he needed something more exciting. Another bored sigh prompted Mirajane to ask him, "What's with the long face, Naruto-_kun_?"

He looked up at her. "I'm bored of these simple job requests, and I haven't seen _Benihime-chan_ in a while," he said, not quite whining. "I've missed her, challenging me to fights."

She smiled at him. "Why don't you talk to the master about giving you an S-class job? You're an S-class mage already. He might just give you one."

Naruto smiled. "You're right, Mira-chan, I think I'll talk with the old coot. He did mention that I'd be allowed to do that, after all. I guess I must have forgotten…"

She giggled as he got up and went to the master's office.

Meanwhile, Makarov was up in his office, thinking about how he could promote Naruto to S-class while still being fair to the other mages. S-class mages were on another level of ability and power, especially when compared to run-of-the-mill mages, which is why he had the traditional S-Class Mage Promotion Trial in the first place.

But that was still about five months away, and he didn't want to lose a very powerful mage that could do thirty-plus missions in a single week. '_What if I give him an S-class mission, with an S-class mage who'd evaluate his skill and level during the mission?_' he thought to himself.'_When they get back, I'd look over the results and see if he's ready to be S-class; not that he isn't, but… who should I send with him?_'

He was rudely snapped out of his thoughts by a knock at his office door. Grumbling about noisy children disturbing him, he said aloud, "Come in!" Ironically, the subject of his musing entered.

"Sorry to disturb you, master," Naruto shrugged. "…but I need to talk to you."

The master nodded, gesturing at a chair as he asked, "What did you want to talk about, my boy?"

Naruto cleared his throat with a cough. "I need your permission to do an S-class mission. The jobs for the rank-and-file are below my standards, and… well, if I'm honest, I'm getting bored. So I came to see if you could allow me to perform an S-class job…"

The old master chuckled, causing Naruto to raise a brow in curiosity. "I was actually thinking about that, my boy. Here's the deal; I'll give you the job, and you can even choose any of the available S-class jobs that you want to go on, but there's a condition that you'll have to fulfill."

"Which is?" Naruto asked.

"I know that you like to do a mission solo, but in order to evaluate your skill with said missions, I must send an S-class mage along with you," Makarov shrugged. "Even if they're weaker than you, Naruto, they'll still have more experience with S-class missions, so their assessments will go a long way towards your S-class certification."

Naruto nodded. Not only did he understand Makarov's position, but his reasoning reminded him of old man Sarutobi, dead these many years now. He nodded decisively. "Master, I formally request that you appoint Erza Scarlet as my partner for this mission. She may be one of the two S-class mages that I've met here in Fairy Tail next to Mira-_chan_, but Mira-_chan_'s fighting spirit is practically nonexistent."

The master sighed as he nodded. Naruto was right, but if Mirajane hadn't told him about the details of that day, then he certainly had no place to talk about her past tragedies. "All right, then. Erza will be back later today, so talk to her about this."

Naruto nodded as he turned to leave. Turning back, he said, "Thank you for trusting me, master."

Makarov smiled slightly. "Naruto, you deserve this. You've long since proven yourself to be a great mage and you're a decent person. After all, you haven't let your power go to your head. I just hope that my grandson Laxus could learn something from you. Besides, you're part of Fairy Tail now, practically one of my children. As a parent, I have an obligation and duty to trust and help my children."

Naruto was stunned by the man's words. Raised as an orphan, he'd never heard those words except from the sealed imprints of his parents in the seal that held Kurama, the _Kyūbi no Yōko._ He smiled at the idea of a having a parent and walked out of Makarov's office with that sad smile.

An hour later, Naruto sat waiting for Erza. She'd be arriving any minute now, and they'd be going on their mission. Like clockwork, she entered the guildhall with members of Team Natsu, who saw him and smiled. Naruto got up to greet his fellow guild mates while Erza ignored him, which only made him smile. "Look, you guys, I've got an important job and I need _Benihime-chan_ for a bit."

Team Natsu looked over at Erza, who seemed torn between wanting to hug Naruto or kill him for some reason. He easily got under her skin sometimes. She looked at him and nodded as he smirked and bowed half-heartedly, making her eyebrow twitch in suppressed anger. "Look, Benihime-chan, I need you to evaluate me on an S-class mission before I get promoted to S-class. You can even talk to master about it if you want."

Her eyes widened. Naruto, for all of his considerable power, was a very new member of the guild. To receive a promotion to S-class so quickly was unprecedented. In spite of her personal misgivings, she trusted Makarov's wisdom and that he'd act for the good of the guild. "All right, Naruto-kun, let me confirm with master and we can go on this mission."

She got up and walked up to the master's office. Naruto stared at Erza's swaying hips and slightly bouncing derriere with a thin smile.

Mirajane coughed into the small of her hand, tendrils of jealously trickling into her thoughts. '_Men_…' she grumbled disparagingly to herself as Naruto turned to her with a smooth grin. "So, did master accept your idea, Naruto-kun?"

"Actually, he did," the blond _shinobi_ shrugged, not really looking at her. "Thanks to you, actually, but he said that the evaluation would be the last test I'd take before I could be called an S-class mage."

"I'm glad to hear that, but be careful. As you know, S-class jobs are very dangerous," she warned him.

He turned to face her, his easy smile making her blush again. "Oh, well, that's my kind of job, really," he shrugged, his smile widening into a grin.

Smirking, he got up from his seat and walked up the stairs to the second floor. The guild members watched silently as he walked to the S-class job board. He returned to his seat in a flash of light, an S-class request poster in hand and surprising more than a few people there who hadn't seen him do that before, Team Natsu amongst such people. They gasped in awe at his speed, and a starry-eyed Natsu asked him, "Naruto, how did you do that?!"

"Aye, Naruto, how did you do that?" Happy echoed. Gray and Lucy were also interested, so they covertly listened in on the imminent response.

Naruto smiled and closed his eyes. Leaning back in his chair, he opened an eye to regard the four of them for a minute or two before asking them, "Eh? Did you say something?" Needless to say, they all promptly toppled to the floor in exasperation as Naruto and Mira chuckled at their misfortune.

Around that time, Erza came back. Naruto studied her as she regarded him with a strict and assessing gaze. Finally, she said, "Master said that I'm to go with you and 'evaluate' your level of skill. So which request did you take and when do we leave?"

He smiled as he showed her the request, which she took. "Wanted, Argus; a rare variety of T-Rex located in the prehistoric forest," she read aloud. "Payment will be nine million jewels for its capture upon successful delivery to the Dinosaur Park." Looking up from the sheet of paper, she quirked an eyebrow. "Are you sure that you want this mission, Naruto?"

He answered her with a nod and a cocky smirk, as if telling her that the job would be child's play. In a rare display of tact, he ignored Natsu all up in a tizzy about doing S-class jobs. Happy and Lucy looked shocked. They'd been at Fairy Tail a lot longer than Naruto had ever been, and yet he was going to do an S-class job before them. Gray was calm; he knew that Naruto was easily the most powerful mage amongst their little group, even if he wasn't S-class yet.

Nodding decisively, Erza gave the request to Mirajane, who took out the request-reference book and noted that Naruto and Erza were taking on the Dinosaur Park job. Turning back to the blond shinobi, the redheaded swordswoman said, "All right, then, Naruto, we'll be going now so get ready to leave. I have to go pack."

Naruto smirked as he sarcastically saluted Erza before vanished in a flash of yellow light, leaving Natsu behind to gape in astonishment. He then shouted, "How the Hell does he do that? That's so cool!"

Naruto appeared in the guildhall after a couple of minutes, wearing his battle suit. His favorite outfit was a long-sleeved black shirt with a hooded black jacket and a pair of vambraces on his forearms, a pair of black cargo pants with a pair of graves on his lower legs, with steel-capped leather ankle boots on his feet. He sat in his usual chair, where Mirajane was quick to notice. "_Ara_, ready already, Naruto-kun?"

He nodded. "All I've got to do now is to wait for Benihime-chan outside. Later, everyone," he shrugged, walking to the door as Natsu and company turned to Mirajane. Lucy asked, "Mira-san, did Naruto-san and Erza take a job together?"

"Yes, they did," Mirajane smiled. "But they've taken an S-class job."

"I want to do an S-class mission too, Mira-chan!" yelled Natsu excitedly.

"Aye!" supported Happy with his squeaky comical voice.

Lucy just gawked at what she just heard. "But, Mira-san, isn't Naruto-san a bit new to receive an S-class job?" she asked. "He's only been with the guild for ten days and yet he's already received an S-class mission. Isn't that… strange, Mira-san?"

"Master knows what's best for our guild," the former Demon of Fairy Tail shrugged. "Everyone knows that Naruto's ridiculously powerful. Look at how he finished his jobs. He's very experienced and has effectively displayed an ability to do much higher-level jobs. So please stop. Master's word is final."

Natsu was about to whine until he saw Mirajane's glare and closed his mouth shut. Gray and Lucy were rather surprised, but were no strangers to Naruto's incredible power. His defeat of both Erza and Natsu in combat was proof. So they were left to wonder what exactly he and Erza were doing now.

Meanwhile, outside the guildhall, Naruto waited for his partner to arrive. Minutes later, he saw Erza's trademark scarlet hair and walked up to her. Only then did he notice that she was pulling a large handcart that filled to the brim with all sorts of suitcases and bags. At first, he thought they were full of clothes but then he remembered her magic and was forced to reconsider. When he got closer to her, the fragrant aroma of food hit his nostrils.

"Well, well, well, a woman that knows her way around the kitchen and also a strong and powerful warrior," he teased her. "My kind of woman, really."

She flushed brightly. "I… I don't know what you're talking about," she sputtered defensively.

He smiled and chuckled a bit, making her blush even worse. She looked away from him, scowling as she started walking to the train station. Naruto was still snickering before noticing her departure and yelled at her, "Hey, Benihime-chan, I was just fooling around! Wait for me!" and ran after her.

**Tuesday, 18****th**** August X784**

The journey to the ancient forest known as the Prehistoric Forest was uneventful, except that Naruto and Erza were constantly trading jokes with each other and flirting rather expertly. The train trip to their destination took a whole day, which infuriated Naruto because he could've gotten there in twelve hours if he'd been running at full speed the whole way.

To make things easier, Naruto had sealed Erza's luggage away in a storage _fūinjutsu_ scroll, much to her surprise. His unique kind of magic, what he called _ninjutsu_, was more versatile than she'd thought.

Their job was to bring in a rare dinosaur from the old forest to the Dinosaur Park. They were about to enter the forest when Naruto stopped them. Looking at him uncertainly, Erza quirked an eyebrow as he smiled at her. "I'd like to finish this job in record time, so…" A certain handseal later, he shouted, "**Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**!" and a hundred shadow clones appeared in an explosion of smoke and then ran off into the forest.

He smiled as he turned around, knowing that Erza would be shocked by another example of _ninjutsu_ and its many applications. "That was just one of my many techniques, Benihime-chan, so breathe deeply, and let yourself process what you've just seen."

She blushed but nevertheless took a deep breath. Gesturing out at the forest, he said, "That was **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**, which allows me to create solid clones out of my chakra. But the technique can seriously deplete my reserves, especially since most of my people can barely make one, let alone the hundred that you just saw me manifest. But this _jutsu_'s dead useful. I can remember anything that my clones see, hear, feel, or learn, because I'm the original and their creator."

She looked over at Naruto in surprise at his admittance that he could be so seriously drained. '_That technique must be quite taxing on his magic reserves if he's getting drained like this. Maybe it's not supposed to be that much…_' She saw him suddenly smile at her, which caught her curiosity. Then he frowned. "One of my clones just found our target, about twenty kilometers south of our location," he reported, adding, "…but we're not alone in this hunt."

The speed with which he, or rather his clone, had moved did not surprise her. After all, the rumor was that he was the fastest man in Fairy Tail, even the whole of Fiore. It had even earned him his second nickname, the so-called 'Yellow Flash' and she was happy that he'd joined her guild, even if she wouldn't admit it to anyone. She found him to be the only man her age that could beat her so easily.

Ironically, she didn't know whether to hate him or love him. He had a cool air about him that made him seem like royalty. He'd say what he thought, regardless of his audience's opinions, but would still hear advice on matters that he didn't know about or understand. He was a very strange man; he was powerful, very much so, and yet he was humble.

He was not like most other strong men that she'd met. They were generally arrogant peacocks who loved to flaunt their feats as feathers. He talked to different people in the same way, regardless of whether they were normal people, members of a guild, or members of Fairy Tail. Even the people of Magnolia Town adored him, even if he was just a few days old to the guild and town. He had a strange charisma that made people around him trust him easily and become his friend.

He was an enigma, a puzzle that annoyed her. He had a sad and lonely look in his eyes that she would notice and that he would hide behind a bright smile. She couldn't instill any sort of fear in him like she could with other guild members. Ironically, she found this inability refreshing; he could and would talk to her as an equal rather than beneath him.

What annoyed her was that he'd flirt with every other girl in the guild in addition to herself and Mirajane. He'd make her blush at his sexual innuendoes and that damnable smirk of his. She knew that he was cute, and that every single girl of her guild had her eye on him. His past, which he didn't talk about in particular, made him more mysterious than Mystogan. Fairy Tail knew nothing about him or his past and yet he was very sociable and friendly.

She sighed as she began her twenty-kilometer walk through the dangerous forest, following the would-be S-class mage. Naruto was looking around cautiously as they trekked through the forest.

An hour of walking, with a couple of monsters here and there, the two of them reached their target. The loud and familiar sound of snapping tree trunks caught their attention and raised their hackles. As they arrived, creeping ever closer to the source of the noise, they heard a loud beastly roar and a couple of human shouts. Erza was about to charge in and investigate, but Naruto stopped her. She glared at him, her eyes demanding an explanation, and he said coolly, "Erza-chan, we should stick to the shadows until we understand what's going on in there."

She struggled to hide her blush at his familiar behavior as she looked away from him. They walked in the shadows of the trees before laying their eyes upon a large creature that was about fifteen meters long and had tough leathery red brownish skin. The beast was fighting a scythe-wielding mage from some guild that Naruto didn't recognize, prompting him to ask Erza if she knew him.

She regarded the mage for all of a second before her eyes widened in surprise and she growled angrily, which piqued Naruto's interest. Finally, she whispered to him harshly, "The man with the scythe is Erigor, from a dark guild called Eisenwald. He was the ace of that guild, but Natsu defeated him. He and several of his comrades tried to kill the masters of the legal guilds during a guild meeting about a month ago, including Master Makarov. The Rune Knights arrested all of them, but there was a report that he'd escaped."

The scythe-wielding mage then disabled the beast with several punishing blasts of wind. As he finished capturing the mighty beast, he laughed. "What an easy job. The money will be useful in helping master."

Naruto frowned. "Erza, you protect that creature from further harm. I'll handle this Erigor guy." But before she could even reply, he vanished. She sighed and ran to her target as well.

Materializing in front of Erigor, the blond _shinobi_ waved at him cheerfully. "Yo! Sorry, but you're taking my target. If you'd be so kind as to relinquish it to me, I promise you safe passage. What do you say?"

Erigor was initially shocked at Naruto, having never sensed him. But he quickly grew angry at this man's audacious request. "Safe passage, you say?" he sneered. "Why would I need that when I could just kill you and be on my way?"

Sweeping his left arm in Naruto's direction, he shouted, "**Storm Bringer!**" and a large tornado roared into existence. Its torrential power and imbued wind blades pulverized the surrounding trees as it seemed to charge the blond man. Suddenly, the sound of a blade cutting through air was heard and the tornado was sliced in half and unceremoniously dispersed.

With **Storm Bringer**'s power negated, the rubble and dust that it'd picked up now began to rain down onto the earth. Erigor's jaw fell as he realized that he'd just witnessed one of his strongest attacks being reduced to nothing. Then he heard the blond man saying nonchalantly, "You know, it's not nice to attack someone who's offering you a good deal. So this is my last warning; leave or I'll cut you down."

He saw the blond man still standing on the ground, with a long black sword in hand and sporting a cold glare sending shivers down his spine. Erigor was about to retort before he heard a familiar voice say from behind him, "Take the deal, Erigor the _Shinigami_. You know that you can't beat him now, and you certainly can't beat both of us."

He turned around and paled. Much to his horror, he was face-to-face with Erza Scarlet, Fairy Tail's notorious Titania. She was standing in front of the beast that he'd just knocked out. "We have legal paperwork for this beast, and we don't want to fight you. Please leave peacefully."

He growled as he turned to stare at Naruto again. "Oh, so you're from Fairy Tail? Why do you flies always put your nose in my business?! I'll leave this time, but mark my words; I **will** get my revenge on you and your guild!"

The wind began to pick up, obscuring their vision briefly before dissipating to reveal that Erigor had vanished. Erza and Naruto walked to the unconscious beast. She moved to pick it up before Naruto stopped her. "Hey, _Benihime_-_chan_, this job's mine, remember? I gotta do all the work. Plus, you're just here to _evaluate_ me."

She smiled, blushing at her mistake. "I'm sorry, Naruto. Please forgive me for forgetting my job during this request. Please hit me as punishment!"

Naruto smirked, an evil glint in his eyes, before he spanked her ass once, hard. She screeched as a surprising mix of pain and pleasure ran through her body, making her flustered and blushing like an idiot. "What are you doing, Naruto-kun?!" she yelled indignantly.

"What? Didn't you ask me to punish you?" the blond shinobi asked, leering at her. Surprised by his stare, she could see a deep hunger and lust within his deep blue eyes. But he was quick to squelch his emotions as his eyes betrayed the same sadness and loneliness that she used to know quite well.

He abruptly turned to walk towards the unconscious monster before taking out an empty scroll and laid it on the ground in front of the beast itself. She followed him, standing behind as he pulled out an inkwell and brush from somewhere and began to work. He began to write on the scroll in a strange language that she'd never saw before. Finishing his work within minutes, he sealed away his equipment before making a half-ram sign and shouting, "**Fūin**!"

The scroll's writings began to glow a faint blue before tendrils of energy in the same color crawled to the beast and encased its entire body. A massive smoky explosion later, and the beast had somehow disappeared. The scroll, whose writings had an empty gap in its middle, now sported a strange new symbol in it.

Once again, Erza was surprised at this weird magic. But she'd already seen it when Naruto had sealed away her luggage and had preserved her many suitcases before unsealing them when they'd settled into a hotel room only the night before. So she wasn't worried about the dinosaur's health and any possible danger to the integrity of the job.

Once he picked up the scroll, Naruto slipped it into an inner pocket of his jacket before saying, "We're done here. Let's go."

**Wednesday, 19****th**** August X784**

The next day, Naruto and Erza had just returned from his first S-class mission after receiving their payment from the Dinosaur Park owner. The man was thrilled; he'd been trying to get the rare Argus-type for months. He even paid them extra for their speed and promised that he'd recommend Fairy Tail to his friends.

They returned to the guildhall, with Erza riding on Naruto's back because he hated walking slowly when he didn't have to, so their return trip took barely a day. She'd never admit it, but she enjoyed the piggyback ride; she got to touch his body and learn a lot of exact details about his muscles.

They didn't even manage to sit down for a minute before master Makarov and Mirajane approached them. Apparently, Natsu, Happy, and Lucy had gone on an S-Class job without permission. Makarov had ordered Gray to get them back, but they had yet to return. So he had Erza and Naruto to make sure that they were fine and to return them to the guild immediately.

Erza grew angry, but Naruto was a little disappointed in the kids than anything else. Nevertheless, he knew that they'd have to learn from their mistakes. Sighing, he muttered something about annoying brats and their stupidity before turning to Makarov and asking, "So, master, where did Natsu and his friends go to?"

Makarov scowled deeply. "The cursed island of Galuna…"

To be continued…


	6. Chapter 6

Hello there guys! Thank you to all my reader and reviewers for their support. Thank you all of you as I my story has passed the 1oo hundred mark, Yahoo! But thanks to my friend Reikson for his great work in proof checking it. Thanks to a friend of mine who gave me a great idea for this chapter… Guys I will update 'Naruto - Rebirth of the Rikudō Sennin' next after this one.

**Fairy Tail's Shinobi**

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: "_Naruto"_

Thoughts: _'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'_

Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "**Katon Jutsu, Ice Make Shield**!"

Demons and Dragons Speech: **"Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"**

Demons and Dragons Thinking: _**'The question is what to do with him…'**_

The Kingdom of Fiore is a neutral country of seventeen million people.

It is a world of magic.

Magic, bought and sought every day, is an integral part of the people's lives.

Moreover, there are those who use magic as their occupation. These people are mages or sorcerers.

The mages belong to various guilds, and perform jobs on commission.

There are a large number of guilds throughout the country of Fiore.

In addition, there lies a certain guild in a certain city.

This guild hosted legends in times long ago, and would continue to host more such legends long into the future…

…and its name is Fairy Tail!

**Chapter 6 – The Cursed Island **

"A cursed island?" Naruto parroted, now somewhat interested. "Why is it cursed?"

"Legend is that the island has the power to change people to demons because of a curse," Mirajane said. "The job asked to lift that curse from the island."

"How long have they been away, Mira-chan?" Naruto asked, disappointed.

"They've been gone for three days now, Naruto-kun," Mirajane sighed.

Looking over at Erza, Naruto frowned at her silence, which he took as a bad sign. Walking up to her, he placed a hand on her shoulder. She flinched in place before turning an angry glare on him, but he remained unmoved. Everyone in sight of her glare promptly flinched, save for Makarov and Mirajane, and Naruto was unimpressed with Erza's behavior. Finally, he said, "Let's go get those brats back here and finish the job while for them while we're at it."

Erza growled. "I don't care about the job," she muttered. "They broke the rules of the guild and they must come back to face their punishment, that's all."

Naruto's eyes softened somewhat. "Don't forget your love for them just because they made a really big mistake," he grunted. "We're only human, after all, and mistakes are what we tend to do."

Erza's eyes widened at Naruto's words. Then they softened, and she sighed. Surprised by their newest members honest words, the guild members smiled. They were glad that the guild finally had a member who could defuse Erza quite handily.

Makarov only laughed. "Well said, Naruto," he chuckled. "Oh, and I've received some good word from the owner of that request you took. I'm proud of you, and I'd like to celebrate, but getting those brats back comes first. As of now, however, you're an S-class mage of Fairy Tail. I'll send the needed paperwork to the Magic Council in Era for registration."

Naruto nodded and joined Erza as she headed for the guildhall's front door. "One more thing," he called after the two of them, making them stop in their tracks and look back at him. "…please hurry, both of you. I'm worried about those reckless brats."

The blond shinobi smiled and gave a lackadaisical two-finger saluted in response before grabbing Erza's left shoulder. Almost instantly, the two of them vanished in a small tornado of wind and leaves.

Makarov was taken off-guard again. "How does he do that? I didn't even see him use any of those _jutsu_ of his?"

Mirajane only giggled. "That's what we're trying to figure out too, master."

**Thursday, 20****th**** August X784, Galuna Island**

It was the dawn of a beautiful new day, or as beautiful as a day could be when you're fighting for your very life. Lucy was on the beach, fighting for dear life against Sherry Blendy of the Lamia Scale guild and her magic Rock Doll spell. But a timely use of Aquarius's double-edged Giant Wave Attack on Lucy's part, swept her and her pink-haired adversary away in a torrential sweep of water that left both of them staggering about in dizziness.

Lucy snapped out of it first and knocked Sherry to the ground with a clothesline attack that hit Sherry's upper chest and neck and slammed her to the ground. As she was about to lose consciousness, Sherry called on her giant green pet rat Angelica to avenge her, which it did, but neither of them could've imagined that Erza Scarlet would appear from out of nowhere and defeat the rat with a single slash from her Heart Kreuz sword.

"Erza!" Lucy squeaked in relief, but when she noticed the redhead's terrifying scowl, she trailed off. She was scared stiff, having never seen Erza this angry before. Her eyes seemed to be glowing in anger, and Lucy remembered that she'd joined Natsu and Happy in breaking the rules of the guild to go off on an S-class quest without permission. Fairy Tail's Titania had come to take them back for punishment.

To make matters worse, Happy came to see if she was fine. The second he arrived, though, he saw Erza and tried to escape by flying. But Erza grabbed him by the tail, catching him, before returning her angry stare at Lucy all while holding Happy in place. "Lucy, do you know why I'm here?" The redheaded swordswoman demanded imperiously, looking every bit the queen that Sorcerer Magazine had once dubbed her.

Trying to curry some favor, Lucy squeaked softly, "To take us back to the guild for breaking the rules?"

But the three of them didn't notice a masked person was spying on them. "Heehee, I should inform Lyon-sama of this development," it giggled.

"It's rude to spy on other people, you know," a male voice mused aloud from behind the masked man, surprising him.

"Oh, is that right?" the masked man sneered sarcastically. He turned around and saw a tall man standing on a tree branch above him. He was wearing a long sleeve black shirt under a hooded black jacket, with a pair of vambraces on his forearms, metal-plated gloves on his hands, with black cargo pants and greaves on his lower legs, with steel-reinforced boots on his feet.

"Well, well, well, the Yellow Flash of Fairy Tail himself? My name is Zalty; I'm honored to meet you," the man said, bowing with mock respect. Naruto only frowned, having noticed something odd about Zalty already. Discreetly sending chakra to his eyes and quickly activated his _dōjutsu_ from the shadow of his hood, he smiled as he realized what he was seeing.

"Now why would you hide such beauty under that transformation, young lady?"

This shocked Zalty speechless. "H-how…?" the disguised woman sputtered.

Naruto smirked. "I discovered the nature of your magical energy flow. From there, learning that you were using transformation magic to hide your true form was child's play. Additionally, my senses are sharp enough for me to discern gender by scent, but your actions just now only confirmed my theory."

Ultear Milkovich flinched under the weight of his words. '_That's impossible; no one can sense me when I use my magic, and he could also smell my phero… this is embarrassing. At least he didn't see me blushing_.' Then her eyes widened.'_Wait a minute, how'd he know of my beauty? The only way that could've- there's more to the Yellow Flash of Fairy Tail than meets the eye. With no knowledge of his abilities available, I'll have to retreat_.' She jumped away from Naruto and vanished. Left behind, he smiled in the knowledge that he'd scared the young woman away.

Using **Shunshin no jutsu**, he appeared beside Erza and scared her when he clapped a hand on her right shoulder. "Maa, maa, _Benihime-chan_, go easy on them or they'll never make it back to the guild," he told her genially.

"Naruto-san!" a surprised Lucy and Happy yelled simultaneously.

Before he could say anything, Erza asked, "Naruto, why are you late?" without even looking at him.

"Sorry, I just got lost on the path of life," the blond shinobi shrugged.

Lucy, Happy, and even Erza all fell over at his rather nonchalant reply. Getting up first, Erza shrugged before turning to the captured duo. "Where are Natsu and Gray?"

"We don't know!" they wailed in unison, not wanting Erza's 'scary face' on them again.

"Let's go to the village that gave that S-class quest in the first place," Naruto suggested. "That way, we might find one of them there."

Erza nodded as she dragged Lucy and Happy with her.

Gray woke up to find himself in a strange place; a tent of some kind, with a lot of stuff scattered about its confines. He winced as he managed to sit up, taking notice of his bandaged torso; his ribs had been damaged somehow. Crawling out of the tent, he looked around and found himself in an unfamiliar place. "Where am I?" he mumbled to himself.

"Thank goodness you're awake!" one of the village girls exclaimed. She had a pretty face, had short black hair, big brown eyes, and was wearing a red tribal bead necklace with an orange bikini top along with a sea-green cloth miniskirt.

"What is this place?" Gray wondered aloud.

"This is the storage house, which is away from our village," the village girl mumbled, looking sad. "We had to move here since the village was destroyed yesterday."

He then remembered what his old rival Lyon had said as he ordered the destruction of the village. '_Did the bastard actually do it?!_'

The girl added, "Thanks to Natsu-san and Lucy-san, nobody was hurt and we're grateful for that."

He turned to her again. "Are they here too?"

"Yes," she nodded.

She showed him to a big tent. What he saw in front of it made him shout in surprise. "Erza?! Naruto-san?!" Erza was sitting down on a crate, her legs crossed and with a tied-up and crying Lucy and Happy kneeling by her side. Naruto was leaning up against a nearby wall. He was unusually quiet, simply nodding to Gray in acknowledgment.

"Gray, weren't you supposed to get them back to the guild?" Erza asked coldly, brooking no niceties. "I would've this type of behavior from Natsu, but you've left me speechless."

"Uh, wh- where's Natsu?" Gray sputtered, trying to stall.

"That's what I want to know myself," the redheaded swordswoman growled.

"He should've been in the village fighting Reitei's lackeys," Lucy murmured sadly. "But when we went there to check for him, we didn't find anything."

"I searched from the air," Happy added his two cents, "…and that is how we found this place; tied up like this."

Everyone ignored the last comment as Erza stood and walked towards the exit. "Gray, we're going to look for Natsu," she said decisively. "When we find him, we're returning back to the guild."

Shocked by her words, Gray yelled, "What are you saying, Erza? If you've heard what's happening here, then you'd also know what's happening on the island!"

"So what?" she snapped coldly.

Her response shocked Gray into silence. Naruto knew that she was right, but didn't voice his personal disagreements with the redhead's sentiments.

"I came here to bring back some guild-law breakers," the redhead sneered. "I have not even a sliver of interest in anything else."

"Didn't you see what kind of condition the people of this island are in?!" Gray roared at her.

"Yes, I did," she nodded.

"…and you're just going to leave them like that?!"

"Their request has been posted to every guild," she shrugged. "Wouldn't it be better to leave it to some other guild mages that can take on this job properly?"

Gray recoiled, one of his eyebrows ticking from the sheer force of his anger, before he popped his knuckles. "All this time… clearly, I've misjudged you," he hissed.

"What did you say?" She snapped. Her anger was mounting in the face of these brats' audacity in breaking master's rule, and now they're talking about finishing a job that they'd stolen in the first place?

"How dare you say that to Erza-sama!" Happy bawled nervously, making Lucy twitch at his reaction and his use of the very respectful suffix.

"Do you intend to break the guild rules any more than you already have?" the redhead demanded, activating her magic and summoned her usual long sword. Leveling the weapon at Gray's chin, she sneered, "You won't get away with it."

Gray grabbed the sword barehanded defiantly. "Do what you must," he snapped, his hand beginning to bleed as the blade cut in to his palm. "I've chosen to follow this path and I'll see it through to the end. If you want to cut me down, do it." He let go of her sword and stood there.

When Erza said nothing and only scowled at him, he turned about on his heel. Just as he was about to leave, however, Naruto broke the silence. "Gray, you're in enough trouble as it is, we'll finish this job for you. Tell us everything you know about this mission." As the Ice-Make mage stopped in his tracks, the blond shinobi added, "Erza, now that we're here, we might as well finish this job for them. After all, we're both S-class mages. So let Lucy and Happy go. They'll be helping us."

Erza snorted at Naruto's orders as she cut Lucy and Happy free. Just as the two of them were about to celebrate, she snapped, "Don't get the wrong idea! You'll still be punished when we get back to the guild!" As the comical duo sighed deeply in simultaneous agreement, Naruto gestured at some nearby crates. Once they had all sat down, he nodded at Gray to begin his explanation.

Meanwhile, near the ancient temple, Natsu groaned as he sat up. "I finally have a good idea and then I go and oversleep." Staggering to his feet, he reached the doorway into the temple and clenched his hands. "Anyways, let's start!" he roared, running into at top speed with flame-wreathed fists.

At that same time, in the ancient temple itself, Reitei Lyon was sitting on a stone throne and critically examining his one remaining subordinate. "How pitiful," he sighed. "You're the only one left, Toby?"

Toby twitched, trying not to let his team leader know that he'd knocked himself out early on in their brawl with the Fairy Tail team.

Lyon muttered, "Deliora's resurrection may be endangered, at this rate," just as Zalty entered the chamber.

The masked 'man' was much more confident. "Deliora will be resurrected when we pour in the full magical power of the moon tonight."

He paused a bit before adding, "But if the **Moon Drip** Ceremony is interrupted, then Deliora will stay in that ice forever. To make things worse, Fairy Tail has sent the Titania and the Yellow Flash to reinforce the team that they'd initially sent." Behind Zalty's 'mask' of magic, however, Ultear grimaced. Fairy Tail's newest mage, its Demon King the Yellow Flash, had casually proved to be far more dangerous than any of the Ten Wizard Saints had initially thought possible.

"Your intelligence is fast, as always," Lyon grunted. "But I'm not about to be defeated. Nothing defeats the ice sword that can surpass even Ur…"

"That is quite heartening to hear," Zalty snapped. "Then again, it's been a while, but perhaps I should join in the battle myself. Yes… as you know, I have knowledge of Lost Magic, you see…"

Suddenly, the ground began to shake and quiver and the whole temple began to tilt to the side.

The tremors increased, and muffled explosions could be heard from beneath the floor of the temple. A great stream of fire erupted from the lower chamber, allowing access to Lyon, Zalty, and Toby through a large hole through the floors of the temple.

Lyon shouted, "What the Hell is this?!"

Zalty moved to the smoke billowing from the hole. A quick look later, and the masked 'man' called back to them, "He didn't waste any time at all. Look, he's down below." Lyon and Toby came up and glanced down, and noticed that pink-haired Fairy Tail mage laughing up at them.

He shouted up at them, "I'd rather destroy it before you found me, but these ruins are a lot harder to bring down than I thought!"

"What are you trying to do?!" Lyon roared.

"Tip the building over!" Natsu laughed. "Then the moonlight can't land on the demon in the basement!"

"You bastard! How dare you?! You damned Fairy Tail mage!" Lyon sputtered.

"What'd he do, Lyon?" Toby asked.

"By destroying half of the pillars at the base of the ruins," Zalty lectured, "…he can tilt the building so that the light of moon won't hit Deliora. That's his plan, I believe. He may not look like it, but he's quite shrewd."

Natsu had enough of talking, and shouted up at them, "Enough blabbing!" He activated his magic as his fire magic surrounded his feet. Plumes of flame quickly condensed into jets, making him rise up from the ground before flashing white.

The display caught Lyon and Toby off-guard long enough for Natsu to launch himself at them like a missile, the flames from his feet roaring like an overpowered engine. He flew up and head-butted Lyon in the stomach, but was surprised when the silver haired Ice Make mage began to crack and shatter into pieces of ice.

"Huh? A fake?" Natsu sputtered, looking around for the real Lyon. Emerging from behind a nearby pillar, the man in question made a hand gesture and shouted, "**Ice Make: Eagle!**"

"You can't avoid them while you're in midair!" Lyon sneered as the magical ice sculptures shimmered into existence and soared towards him.

Natsu knew he was right, so he released a stream of flame that slammed him to the ground and handily let him avoid the icy raptors. Lyon grunted in anger as Natsu somersaulted into a handstand, attacking the Ice Make mage with a blast of flame shot from his feet.

He ducked, managing to dodge the stream of fire that roared overhead as he grumbled, "What random magic…"

Natsu continued his attack with a couple of fire whips from his legs, but Lyon dodged again and jumped back. But, somehow, Natsu attacked him while Lyon was still airborne. While he was still on his hands, he shouted, "**Karyū no Hōkō!**" and launched a stream of fire at the vulnerable Lyon. But Zalty used his magic to make a hole where Natsu was standing, causing him to fall down to the floor below.

"You got luck, Reitei-sama," the mysterious masked figure said casually.

"What did you do?" Lyon demanded.

"What indeed?" the masked man mused rhetorically.

"Don't dodge the question, answer me!" Lyon snapped indignantly. "It was your magic that destroyed the floor!"

"Ah, Reitei-sama… nothing gets past your eyes," Zalty said dryly. "Nevertheless, please understand. I cannot afford to lose you until Deliora is resurrected."

Angered by Zalty's words and continued evasiveness, Lyon flared his magic power to the point that a visible icy mist hung around him. "You're saying that I'd have been beaten if I was hit by those flames?" he snarled. In an uncontrolled display of his power, his power lashed and coated the entire room in a fresh shell of ice. "Get lost! I'll finish him off myself. I'm Reitei Lyon! The one and only wizard who can defeat Deliora! To even imply that I'd have trouble with a brat like him is insulting!"

Zalty smiled enigmatically. "My, my…"

"Defeat Deliora?" Natsu asked cluelessly, causing Lyon to spin about and confront the Fire Dragon Slayer mage again.

Meanwhile, outside the ruins, Gray had explained everything, even that the ice encasing the demon called Deliora was actually his old mentor Ur. But his explanation took too much time; the sun was beginning to set, and nightfall was fast approaching. Now they were about to head into the ruins, just before Naruto realized something. "So your mentor Ur is still alive, but she's now the ice coffin that's keeping Deliora in place, right?" Gray nodded, not sure about Naruto's train of thought.

The blond shinobi smirked. "Come here, Gray." While he was surprised, the Ice Make mage did as he was told.

"Now remember Ur. Remember what she used to look like…" Naruto murmured softly, his voice hypnotic and lulling. Gray nodded, closing his eyes as he felt a hand grab his forehead. Barely a minute later and the hand pulled itself away. "That'll be all, Gray, thanks."

"You're welcome, I guess…" Gray muttered uncertainly.

Erza cocked an eyebrow at the display, but said nothing. As always, Naruto's behavior and motives were a mystery to her. After jogging through the ruins for several hours, they were close to the ancient temple. Sensing that they were not alone, however, Naruto said, "I've got something important to do near here. You carry on without me."

Erza turned to say something to him, but he'd already disappeared. Snarling in irritation, she turned back to Lucy, Happy, and Gray and barked, "Let's go!"

Minutes later, they reached the ruins but found that something odd had just happened. The ruins had collapsed on one side, which was surprising, but they all knew that Natsu was the kind of person to do something so ridiculous. They were ready to ignore the sight, but Erza suddenly pushed Lucy and Happy into nearby trees, just as crescent blades were thrown at them from the bushes. Erza and Gray both jumped, managing to evade the thrown projectile weapons.

When they landed, Erza shouted, "Who's there?!"

People in purple hooded robes appeared. One of them shouted, "We found you, Fairy Tail! We won't allow you to interfere with Reitei-sama!"

"Well, well, so these are Lyon's followers?" Erza hissed coldly.

A panicked Lucy shouted, "We're surrounded!"

"Aye!" Happy wailed alongside her.

"Leave them to me!" Erza yelled, bringing out her favorite sword. "Gray, finish things with Lyon!"

Gray was speechless so he just nodded, just as Lucy said, "Don't worry! We're here, too, so just go!" and Happy was quick to agree.

As he made his way to the ruins, he smiled. "You guys…" he murmured.

Within the depths of the ruined temple, the ice-encased Deliora was a sight that only a mother could love. As Naruto appeared in front of the beast from **Shunshin no jutsu**, he actually whistled in astonishment. "Damn, you're one ugly bastard, ain't'cha?!" he exclaimed. "At least the **Bijū** looked cool, but you don't even have that much of an oppressive aura. This killing intent… it's nothing even close to anything that those guys could field, even when they were all sealed up, and yet you were feared. Your creator **had** to be terrifying than you, I'm sure of it." Only then noticing its coffin for the first time, he quirked an eyebrow. "So that's the ice that Ur-san made…"

He activated his new _dōjutsu_, which he'd named **Chōbuku Rinnegan**; a pair of purple eyes with four ripples and a crimson red iris, with three _tomoe_ on each of the four ripple rings. This mutation was the perfect _dōjutsu_, having none of the weakness of the three legendary _dōjutsu_; **Byakugan**, **Sharingan**, and **Rinnegan**. It also has its own special _jutsu_ as well, but he had never used them ever since he had come to this dimension; mainly because he hadn't faced anyone powerful enough to warrant their use yet.

He could clearly see the flow of energies from within the ice. He could even see Ur's magic and life force through the ice itself, as Deliora's own life force was being steadily drained. '_I __**think**__ that I can bring her back as herself. Thanks to Gray, I've got a detailed description of her appearance, and I have all of her life force right here in front of me_.'

Cracking his knuckles, he stretched in place.'_I have both parts necessary for a successful reversal. But I have to wait until the ice melts, while it contains her life force within, before I can even begin. That said, even if the demon's already dead, some precautionary binding seals never hurt_.'

Ur's **Ice Shell** spell was a powerful ability, to draining the very life force of the demon Deliora and thus killing it. What he could see of the demon itself was that it'd been powerful in its heyday, but nowhere near as powerful as any of the **Bijū**; at its peak, Deliora didn't have anywhere near as much power as even the _Ichibi no Shukaku_, but to be able to immobilize such a figure was a notable feat unto itself.

Magic was a frightening thing, indeed. This spell could've saved many lives during the _Kyūbi_ rampage on the night of his birth. Such a pity that this magic wouldn't work in his world; using Eternano was akin to using _senjutsu_, and the requirements for **that** ability back home was so stringent that using magic was effectively pointless.

Personally, he'd come to see Kurama as a friend, and couldn't freeze him forever; not in good conscience. His rampage that night hadn't even been his fault to begin with, but rather that of the masked man that Kakashi-_sensei_ had called Uchiha Obito.

Naruto shook his head, trying to rid himself of that particular train of thought. He walked behind the frozen beast, so that no one could see him and interrupt his own work, and summoned his calligraphy set and a large scroll. Kneeling before the scroll, he grabbed his brush and began his work on the containment seal. As he was working, however, he could sense Natsu fighting Lyon.

He sighed. He had to finish this quickly.

A couple of hours later, Naruto had finished his **fūinjutsu** work and was now meditating. The ground was shaking as he felt the effects of some kind of clashing magic. Activating the **Chōbuku Rinnegan** again so he could observe the situation better, he saw Natsu and Gray on one of the top floors of the temple. They seemed to be fighting Lyon, the apparent leader of the opposition. He began to read their lips as Zalty came in and told Lyon that the ritual would begin soon, and he asked the masked 'man' if he'd fixed the temple yet.

The masked 'man' laughed as Natsu asked the same thing and promptly ignored the pink-haired boy. Losing his temper, the Fire Dragon Slayer charged the masked man, trying to punch his face in, as Gray moved to fight Lyon. Much to Naruto's surprise, both of them used Ice Make magic.

Naruto noticed that Erza, Lucy, and Happy, were all outside the temple fighting Lyon's minions. He couldn't join as he had to wait for the **Moon Drip** ritual to change the ice into energy-saturated water.

Luckily, he didn't have to wait long. A weird liquid streamed down from the ceiling of the basement cavern and he noticed that someone familiar was coming. Hiding in the shadows, he noticed that it was the transformed woman Zalty. Now that he thought about it, he could even feel that Zalty's energy was not too dissimilar from Ur; some kind of family relationship, most likely. His suspicions were only confirmed when Zalty dropped the transformation to reveal that the woman underneath even looked like Ur somewhat, when compared against the image of her that he'd gotten from Gray.

Briefly wondering why and how, but not really caring, he started to infuse his chakra into the **fūinjutsu **containment seal. The seal array glowed pale-blue, as the chakra initiated the absorption of the water that melted from the ice. Zalty stepped back, staring warily at the elaborate array of a magical circle that she'd never seen before, but a large explosion behind her spurred her into reestablishing her disguise again.

Just in time, too, given that Natsu showed up moments later and was spoiling for a fight. "Salamander-_kun_, how did you find me?" Zalty teased.

Natsu smirked. "I've got a good nose, and you smell like women's perfume, for some reason…"

Much to Naruto's amusement, they started fighting. What interested Naruto was that Zalty's magic seemed to control temporal flows of anything **other** than humans; a useful ability with such a crippling weakness had an irony to it that wasn't lost on him. He then heard an explosion on the higher floors of the temple and looked up, only to see Gray defeat Lyon by shooting him with **Ice Make: Ice Cannon**, which just looked really cool.

Naruto chuckled at the lame pun, but a loud screeching roar snapped him out of his amusement. He winced, tempted to block out the horrible noise with his hands. Then his eyes widen as he realized that the sound had come from Deliora.

Meanwhile, Natsu and Zalty were still fighting. Zalty was beating the crap out of Natsu by using a crystal ball; multiplying the balls' number and making the orbs rain down on Natsu. But the pink-haired Fire Dragon Slayer used it to his advantage, destroying all of them with one attack and generating a cloud of smoke that hid him from sight until he could slam a powerful punch to Zalty's jaw and send 'him' flying.

Gray came as soon as he could, to try to stop the monster. Even Lyon, who was half-dead, came to fight the creature but was knocked out with a chop to the back of the neck by Gray. Just as he was about to prime **Iced Shell** himself, however, Naruto's containment seal had finished collecting all of the melted ice and water.

Naruto picked up the fūinjutsu scroll and rolled it up before placing it in his pouch. Using **Shunshin no jutsu**, he appeared in front of Gray and managed to startle him long enough to stop him from performing the spell. "Gray," the blond shinobi said gravely, "…I'll stop Deliora."

Gray was about to argue until he saw Naruto's eyes, and quickly shut up. He nodded as he turned back to the beast and raised his left hand. Shouting, "**Chakra no kusari jutsu!**" prompted several golden-glowing spiked chains, topped with kunai heads, to fire out of Naruto's palm and ensnare Deliora itself completely. The beast couldn't even move a muscle before the blond shinobi pulled on his chains and managed to crush the beast into dust.

Gray, Lyon, and Natsu stood stiff and openmouthed. They were all terrified by the power of a man who could defeat Deliora so casually.

Of course, that was just before Natsu started shouting about how Naruto's latest stunt was so cool.

But Zalty was shocked as well. The Yellow Flash of Fairy Tail defeating one of Zeref's demon-creations with just one attack? This definitely had to get back to _him_…

Naruto sighed. "That's not as impressive as I made it look, Natsu," he reproached the Fire Dragon Slayer casually. "That demon was on its last legs; Ur's magic had already defeated it to begin with. Plus, I have something else to do now."

Pulling out a scroll, he looked over at Gray. "I have something that might bring you to tears, Gray," he said dryly, unfurling the scroll and laying it before him.

Closing his eyes, Naruto made a **Kage Bunshin** with a single hand-sign. The spectators were stunned, but didn't do anything lest they anger him in some way. The **Bunshin** touched the center of the scroll and shouted, "Kai!" and the seal began to glow brightly, just as the shinobi opened his eyes.

Gray saw a pair of crimson irises and purple ripples had replaced Naruto's blue eyes. Then he realized that those eyes were identical to the Hannya mask that appeared after the first time that Natsu had tried to punch him. He shivered reflexively as he remembered the cold and murderously dark aura that had seemed to hang around that ghastly spectral visage.

Natsu twitched as he felt that dreaded cold again, the same cold that he felt the one time that he'd angered Naruto. He looked over at the blond _shinobi_ and noticed that he now had the same eyes as that dreaded demon mask.

Naruto then made a series of hand seals, finishing with a clap of his hands as he shouted, "**Onmyōton: Banbutsu Sōzō!**" A flash of white light blinded everyone there, but Naruto could see Ur's gathered life force beginning to form and create her body again. Her body absorbed the water that had been saturated with her life force and her magic power, and was quick to coalesce and condense into actual flesh and blood. When the blinding light finally faded away, Gray, Natsu, and Lyon were all shocked by what they found.

Ur was lying unconscious on Naruto's scroll, a fully flesh-and-blood woman and alive once more. Of course, she was completely naked, which the **Kage Bunshin** immediately compensated for by draping an oversized cloak over her body.

But before they could say anything else, Naruto fell to the ground unconscious, with blood dribbling from his mouth and nose.

None of them noticed Zalty standing up and dropping a transformation spell to reveal the young woman that Naruto had met and discovered earlier.

A wide-eyed Ultear Milkovich stared at the five of them for several long minutes before cloaking herself in her Transformation magic again and spiriting herself away, trying to understand the implications of what she'd just seen happen. Her mother was alive…?

**Saturday, 21****th**** August X784, Galuna Island**

With the mission successfully finished, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy were all leaving the island on the pirate ship that Erza and Naruto had commandeered. The four of them were smiling broadly, having finished an S-class quest and thus proving to themselves that they had some mettle to them.

But Erza noticed that Naruto hadn't said a word and was worried. "What's wrong, Naruto? You haven't said a word ever since you woke up after reviving Ur-san. Are you angry at Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Happy?" She was **still** trying to figure out how he'd revived Gray's mentor, purely for academic reasons.

Naruto looked at all of them to their faces. "I'm not angry, more like disappointed," he said finally. "I expected better from the four of you. You shouldn't have taken a mission like that. Gray, you should've brought them back instead of joining them."

Predictably, Natsu started to shout while the other three looked down in shame.

Naruto turned his back on them as he looked out to the sea. When he turned back to them, his face betrayed a bizarre mixture of anger, sadness, and wistful nostalgia. Finally, however, he said, "You know, my first teacher used to say a phrase that I took to heart and still follow to this day. Those that break rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum."

"Naruto, calling them scum is uncalled for and very harsh!" Erza shouted at him.

"Hey, relax, Benihime-chan, I haven't made my point yet," the blond shinobi sighed, putting up his hands in surrender. "The reason that master even placed those rules is to insure the safety of everybody in the guild, and they just went and disregarded his judgment."

Turning back to look out at the sea, he added, "You guys didn't do that for your comrades. Your own selfish desires wanted the prestige of pulling off an S-Rank mission successfully, and you went and almost got yourselves killed for your trouble."

Natsu, Gray, and Lucy exchanged uneasy glances with each other. They'd been so caught up in Naruto's monstrous power and casual boredom with regular jobs that Natsu's hotheadedness had led him to think that he could mimic the shinobi's feat. He'd managed to coax Happy and Lucy into his own brand of foolishness, and suckered Gray into it when his rival had noticed where the mission was being held.

Having let them mull over his words long enough, Naruto added, "What would you have done if you couldn't handle the realities of the mission?" When the three of them turned to look at him, they noticed that he was absently twirling a kunai around his finger. "What if there had been more trouble than you could handle? Then what you do? You could've sacrifice each other's lives, but for what? To know what it's like to do an S-Rank mission? Making mistakes… I don't know how disappointed I should be in the four of you when I've done some things just as stupid."

With that, Naruto left them to let them think over his words. Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and even Happy just sat there in silence, trying to understand the implications of his words.

Erza was lost in thought for a different reason. "_This is the first time that he's ever spoken about his past. He's almost as much of a host of sorrows as me but he can still smile warmly to everyone. What's happened to him to make him the man that he is today_?"

To be continued…


	7. Chapter 7

Hello there guys! Thank you to all my reader and reviewers for their support. I just feel surprised that people found this story awesome and I am glad you did. I am sorry am late in delivering this chapter. I have trying to find a way for Naruto to be part of the story and I was honestly lazy. Plus my beta was having some problems and thank god he was safe from that super storm, Sandy. He had his own set of problems as well. However, now that I have finished my rant please enjoy this story…

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: "_Naruto"_

Thoughts: _'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'_

Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "**Katon Jutsu, Ice Make Shield**!"

Demons and Dragons Speech: **"Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"**

Demons and Dragons Thinking: _**'The question is what to do with him…'**_

**Chapter 7: Phantom Lord**

**Sunday, 22****nd**** August X784**

"I'm sorry, Siegrain-sama, but I didn't think that _that _woman's magic would be that powerful!" Ultear Milkovich sputtered through her Thought Projection magic. "Also, I was taken completely off-guard when I learned that the Yellow Flash somehow had the ability to resurrect the dead! He restores _that_ _woman_ to life, using the ice that she used to seal the demon Deliora away, and even destroys it as though it was little more than an annoyance!"

Meanwhile, deep within the confines of Earthland's Magic Council headquarters in Era, Jellal 'Siegrain' Fernandes quirked an eyebrow as his mind raced to digest Ultear's data. He'd read all of the incident reports, of course, and had heard the rumors. But to hear his best subordinate all but confirm the stories only made for some very unpleasant implications. "Go on," he said calmly, with only the slight narrowing of his eyes betraying his renewed interest in Fairy Tail's Yellow Flash.

"He had this wonderfully sinister aura about him, and those eyes… they made me shiver," Ultear murmured breathlessly, remembering Naruto's flat glare. "The cold glare… I felt as though I was little more than an ant under the weight of his eyes. I'm beginning to think that the rumors about him being more powerful than Zeref are true."

"Do you, now?" Jellal murmured, intrigued. He didn't know Ultear to be a woman given to flights of fancy, so her assurance had to be given a lot of weight. "He must be very powerful indeed. We already know that his magic is unique enough that we've never seen them before. We must be careful to not draw his attention to us, or he might become a problem."

But there was still one thing that nagged at him; the fact that his rumored ability to resurrect the dead had apparently been confirmed. "However, the fact that he can raise the dead is a powerful skill," he added, and Ultear scowled. She didn't like being reminded of the fact that she'd bore witness to her mother's return and was feeling seriously conflicted even now. "He may yet prove useful in our quest to resurrect Zeref the black mage. Moreover, please don't talk about your mother like that, Ultear. I respect your mother; if she hadn't died fighting Deliora, she probably would've been one of the Ten Wizard Saints by now."

Ultear only sneered. "You think too highly of her. My _mother_ is a pitiful and miserable woman who was so obsessed with magic that my father abandoned her. Now that she's back, she'll go back to whatever rathole that she sets up for herself."

"The more important things you lose, the more power you can obtain," Jellal mused, smiling slightly.

"I was- _am_, of little consequence to my mother," Ultear snapped, but her co-conspirator could easily detect the trace of sadness and resentment in her voice.

"I _do_ wonder about that," he continued. "As you know, she raised those two students out of regret and her lingering affection for you. You might even go and-"

"Enough," she snapped, interrupting him. "Let's deal with the next stage."

As he stared at her beautiful face, he noticed the left side of her jaw starting to swell. "What's wrong with your face?" he asked her tactlessly.

She screeches as she looks in a mirror. "What the Hell is this?!"

He laughs. "It swells up _now_? Speaking of which, what was your impression of Natsu during your fight?"

She winced as she placed her hand on the swollen cheek. "I didn't even use half of my power, but he had an impressive strength of will. He'll only grow stronger and stronger… but we have to be wary of the Yellow Flash, too. You know, he goes by another name."

"Oh?"

"The Demon King of Fairy Tail…"

"Charming. We'll just have to see about that."

**Sunday, 22****nd**** August X784**

Naruto had just joined Team Natsu outside of Magnolia Town's train station, and suddenly started sneezing loudly. "Are you all right, Naruto-kun?" Erza asked, concerned. "Are you catching a cold?"

The Yellow Flash of Fairy Tail only laughed. "Oh no, I don't get sick at all. This was probably someone talking about me behind my back."

She cocked an eyebrow, but ignored the comment as a personal joke.

Once they'd reached the city limits, Naruto said that he was going home before vanishing in a flash of yellow light.

Natsu, Happy, and Lucy were still thinking about Naruto's lecture.

Erza was trying to decipher Naruto and his many mysterious depths.

Gray was remembering yesterday's events.

**{Flashback; Yesterday}**

Gray couldn't believe what he was seeing, seriously wondering if his eyes were lying to him.

His teacher, Ur, was back and all thanks to Naruto. But before he could even talk to him, Naruto fell to the ground. Running up to his comrade and checking his pulse, Gray sighed in relief; Naruto was still alive, just unconscious. Turning back to Ur, he noticed that she'd just woken up. As their eyes met, Ur smiled weakly. "Long time, no see, Gray…" she rasped, and that was enough.

Gray took her in a hug as he cried. She rubbed his back soothingly. "It's alright, Gray…" she rasped, trying to comfort him.

Lyon was shocked silent as he realized that his mentor, the woman that he admired the most, had returned from the dead. Then he began to cry as well; not just tears of joy, but also sadness, shame, and embarrassment. '_To think that she was still alive, even as the ice…_' he realized belatedly,'_…I could've lost her forever…_'

She turned to Lyon and smiled. "Lyon, my idiot disciple… I forgive you, too," she grunted, punching him in the arm gently. "If not for you, I'd still be a block of ice."

He couldn't hold back his tears anymore and started sobbing outright, asking her to forgive him even after everything he'd done. Ur only hugged both the boys as they cried, and felt tears prickling her eyes as her maternal senses went into overdrive.

The morning sunlight slipped through the window shutters and struck Naruto in the face. He grimaced, covering his closed eyes with his hand before burrowing his face into his pillow. He stayed that way for all of a second before sitting up in his bed, nursing a rather annoying migraine as he cursed a blue streak. "I'm definitely soft now. I need to work on that when we get back…"

He stretched his body and sighed as he heard the comfortable crack of stiffened joints and the slight pain of loosening muscles. Then he smiled as he noticed that a wild mane of fiery red hair on the pillow next to him. He smiled wryly. '_Now I know how my dad felt when he met my mother. I think we're cursed to love women with exotic hair… damn it all, dad, this is your fault!_'

For some ungodly reason, Happy entered the room at that exact moment, yelling loudly for someone to save him from Natsu. The Fire Dragon Slayer was close behind; apparently, Happy had said something that had angered the pink-haired hothead. Of course, all the noise woke Erza up, much to Naruto's dismay.

As she yawned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, he couldn't help but notice that she looked really cute. She blushed when she noticed his eyes on her and looked away.

Gray walked in, followed by Lucy and Ur, who was the first to speak. "Good morning, Naruto-san," she said, uncharacteristically respectful to someone that she'd only just met.

Everyone looked back at the blond ninja, having only just noticed that he was there, as he smiled back at her. "Good morning to you all," he grinned, absently popping his knuckles.

His nonchalance made everyone, except Erza and Ur, spontaneously plummet to the ground out of sheer exasperation.

Quickly getting to his feet, Natsu yelled, "Naruto! Fight me!" and charged at the ninja still in bed.

"No," Naruto said coolly, dodging the punch quite casually before flicking Natsu in the forehead, somehow sending him flying through the open bedroom door to crash into the hallway wall behind him and quickly knocked unconscious.

Everyone there twitched at his casually-violent response to Natsu's challenge before Gray took the bull by the horns. "Naruto-san, if I'm not being rude in asking… how did you manage to revive Ur-sensei?"

That question got the interest of everyone present as Naruto's bangs shadowed his eyes. He sighed deeply, realizing that he would have to talk about his powers eventually. Finally, he said, "I'll only tell you guys if you promise to not tell anyone else about them."

They all promised and he continued. "I revived Ur by combining my special ability with these eyes…"

Gesturing to his eyes, he activated hisdōjutsu again and shocked everyone there. His ocean-blue irises had darkened to a royal-purple and three concentric circles, each of them dotted with three _tomoe_, seemed to ripple outwards from a blood-red pupil. Having already seen them, Gray didn't react. Lucy and Happy were scared almost of their wits, while Erza and Ur were more surprised than anything else.

Natsu broke the tension with his awestruck shouting. "That's so cool, Naruto-san! How did you do that?!"

Naruto smiled as he realized that all of them were more curious than scared. He should do something nice for Natsu when they got back. "What you see in my eyes now is the **Choubuku Rinnegan**, a unique and hereditary mutation that grants me powerful abilities. One of these abilities allows me to… 'see' the flow of energy. That helped me determine if Ur-san was alive or not; if she was dead, I wouldn't have brought her back. In any case, since she was still alive, I used a jutsu that allows me to alter reality in order to reshape the life energy in the **Iced Shell **spell into anything I could imagine. But I had to read Gray's memory in order to see Ur's body. Using her life force to bring her back was easy, in comparison to actually shaping the melted ice into a flesh-and-blood body. I needed Gray's memories of Ur as a template for successfully reshaping her body into what he remembered."

Suddenly realizing something, he turned to Ur. "By the way, Ur, do you have a sister or something?"

Ur raised an eyebrow at the non-sequitur question. "No, I was an only child and I have no family anymore. I was married once, you see, I even had a daughter. But she died and my husband left me soon afterwards. Why?"

"I asked because I met a young woman that bore an aura signature that's very similar to yours," the blond ninja explained. "Huh, come to think of it, she even looked like you somewhat; a very attractive young woman with pale skin, long hair, and makeup. She also had some kind of time-control magic; I think she called it **Time Arc**. Also, she used Transformation Magic to disguise herself as a masked man named Zalty."

"Oh…" was Ur's only response. Then Natsu perked up, realizing something. "Hey! I fought the time-controlling masked man! But he smelled funny; he wore women's perfume."

"I know that this is painful for you to remember," Naruto pressed Ur. "…but are you sure that your daughter's dead? She could very well be that young lady I met. Ten years **have** passed ever since you sealed Deliora away."

"But that's…" Ur sputtered, bad memories clashing with her savior's words. "The doctor said…" she trailed off as she realized something that brought her to tears. "Oh, no… no, what did I do?!" she wailed, falling to her knees and crying hysterically.

Gray was by her side instantly, trying to comfort her. "What's wrong, Ur-sensei?" he asked.

She continued to cry for a while. Naruto already had the idea that something awful had happened to Ur in the past, but the others were confused. After Ur calmed down a bit, she began to talk. "I had a child once, a daughter. She got sick when she was small. I took her to a good doctor in the hopes that he could make her well again."

Lucy was already teary-eyed and Gray was clenching his fists. "But that damned doctor tricked me!" Ur shouted angrily. "He said that she died and her body was so badly mutilated that I wouldn't want to see her!" Naruto only closed his eyes, silently mourning the death of innocence as Natsu actually growled.

"I was heartbroken when he told me that she died," Ur muttered, sniffling. "I didn't want to see if she really had been mutilated by the illness' effects on her in death; I didn't want my best memories of her to be tainted by such a ghastly image. Like an idiot, I believed him. I left without seeing her body."

"So the young woman really is your daughter…" Erza muttered. "What's her name, Ur-san?"

"Ultear. Ultear Milkovich…"

**{Flashback End}**

Erza suddenly began to speak, snapping Gray back to the real world. "Now… let's get back to the guild and let the master decide your punishment."

"Shit!" Gray grumbled. "I almost forgot…"

"Regarding this case, I kept thinking I could overlook your actions…"

They all sighed in relief before Erza added, "But the master renders the verdict. I do not intend to defend you, either. So be prepared for your punishment."

They all groaned in despair, their heads hanging low. Then Gray flinched, remembering something important. "Oh, shit!" he swore. "The geezer will do 'that' to us!"

"Oh, no, you don't mean 'that', Gray!" Happy wailed, frightened.

Natsu was smiling obliviously before Lucy asked, "Natsu, what is 'that' that they're talking about?"

His face suddenly transformed from a happy smile to a blatantly-terrified look right in front of her, only scaring her even more.

Erza smirked slightly. "Oh, I think Master will definitely do 'that' to you guys as punishment. I feel sorry for you, Lucy; even you will get 'that' as well."

Lucy was hugging a little stuffed dog in fear. "I don't understand!" she screeched. "What is 'that' you guys are talking about?!"

Natsu and Gray had their heads bowed in resignation, Lucy continued asking them about 'that' to no avail, and Erza noticed that they had the attention of the people of Magnolia Town as they whispered amongst themselves. "Huh," she mused speculatively. "Are they scared of us or something?"

Then she could only just suppress a gasp as she noticed something strange and unbelievably shocking, as she bore witness to a sight that she'd hoped would never happen. Gray snapped out of his depression when he heard Lucy gasp outright and Natsu growl. He glanced around, trying to figure out what his compatriots were staring at, and then croak in disbelief. As one, the four of them broke into a run as they ran up to the Fairy Tail guildhall.

Up close, however, they belatedly realized that the guildhall had been wrecked. Massive iron shafts had been thrown throughout the guild's walls, making it resemble a giant pincushion of sorts.

Natsu was shaking with rage as he growled out, "The guild… our guild is ruined!"

An equally angry Erza demanded, "What in the world happened here?!"

"Phantom Lord…" Mirajane replied from behind them, happening to have returned from an errand.

"What did you just say?" Gray asked, after calming himself down.

"Phantom Lord?!" Natsu snarled, visibly angry.

"I hate to say it, but they got us…" the Demon of Fairy Tail scowled, anger seeping into her voice.

Meanwhile, Naruto was shirtless in his house and wearing only a pair of _shinobi_ pants. Unusually for him, he was exhausted. But this wasn't because of the mission but rather because he'd used the **Choubuku Rinnegan** without unsealing his full power.

As a result, using an **Onmyōton**-type jutsu like** Banbutsu Sōzō** drained most of his usual chakra reserves and knocked him out cold. Given the fact that such a ninjutsu was classified as a ridiculously high-powered S-class jutsu rather than just simply impossible, Naruto needed to release his sealed power in order to even use it safely. But that caveat came with its own problems, making him sigh as he remembered why he'd sealed away the vast majority of his power in the first place.

He couldn't walk around without killing civilians by the leaking traces of his immense power. He'd trained himself for the last four years, all to control his power, and all that training paid off. Now he could move around again without hurting anyone anymore. Just to be sure, he applied a suppression seal on himself; the irony of this necessity had not been lost to him.

Now, for the first time in four years, he was about to release those seals. Sitting down in the lotus meditation pose, he began to release all of the built-up chakra that he'd sealed away only three years ago. He scowled as he struggled to maintain the slow trickle needed to successfully release these prodigious reserves. He couldn't let all that chakra out all at once; he'd explode from the sheer overload of the last three years and what was left of his body would make the room look like something out of a horror movie.

This meant that he had to sit there, slowly releasing the seals little by little until he finally opened about a tenth of the whole array. He felt a flood of rejuvenating chakra that ran through his body, healing his injuries and rejuvenating his vitality. He sighed happily as he stood up, stretching in place as he threw a few punches in the air. "There's no way in Hell that I, Uzumaki Naruto, will grow soft like Sarutobi-_jiji_!" he declared, grinning broadly.

Not knowing that the guild had been attacked, he went to his backyard and trained for a couple of hours, slowly loosening his seal up even further and thus increasing his power. He stopped quickly enough, unwilling to open the floodgates any further.

Instead, he went back to meditation, now beginning to control his breathing and expanding his consciousness. This allowed the natural energy of the world to activate his Sennin Mode. Much to his surprise, however, he noticed that the signatures of his friends at the guild were underground and that there were a lot of hostile foreign signatures in the guildhall itself.

His eyes flew open as he stood up to get dressed. "Damn it all, now what happened?" he groaned. "I hope nothing bad…" and vanished in **Shunshin no jutsu**, heading for the guildhall.

Minutes later, Naruto appeared outside the guildhall in a smoky explosion and was shocked to see just how much damage had been done to the place. He noticed that the metal columns had magical energy, what the locals called Eternano, flowing through each of them in as much the same way as Ur's **Iced Shell **spell.

The guild members weren't in the guildhall, but rather in the basement. As he walked in, his nose twitched and he realized that he couldn't smell blood or death in the air, two scents that usually accompanied such a devastating attack.

That said, the guildhall had been smashed up pretty bad. He sighed in relief, though, since he didn't want any of his new friends to get hurt or die. Then he heard a familiar voice shouting from downstairs.

As he made his way down into the basement, he could hear Natsu shouting, "They attacked us first!"

"Natsu, that's not the problem," Mirajane interjected, sounding annoyed. "We all know that the Magic Council prohibited conflict between guilds."

Erza then added, "If that's how master feels, then there is nothing we can do about it."

Feeling impish, Naruto slid into the group until he was right behind Erza before saying, "The master's wisdom is truly great. He knows of the horrors of war…"

His soft, matter-of-fact appearance startled everyone in the basement turned temporary guildhall. All of them instantly looked over at Naruto with wide eyes as he waved merrily at them.

Everyone there, except for Mirajane and Erza, spontaneously toppled to the ground out of shock at his laidback demeanor. "Welcome back, Naruto-kun," Mirajane said cheerfully. "But what did you mean?"

"Oh, that?" the blond grinned nonchalantly. "What I meant was that this attack was just a means to provoke us into starting a fight." His guildmates looked skeptical, making him roll his eyes as he elaborated, "Nobody's been hurt too badly or killed, have they? Who attacked us, anyway, Mira-chan?"

Mirajane frowned but replied, "The Phantom Lord guild."

"Oh, I remember something about how they used to be the top magic guild in Fiore, right?" Naruto mused aloud, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

"Naruto, we have to go kick their ass!" Natsu yelled.

"No," the blond shinobi said coldly, the ice in his voice scaring Natsu stiff and surprising everyone in the guild with his rapid mood change.

Mirajane nodded as he continued. "They might be angry that our guild took their spot at the top. Now, they're probably seeking a way to get revenge or to destroy us. If we don't do anything to fight back, they'll start attacking members of our guild and try to start a war."

He rolled his neck uneasily as Erza then added her two cents. "But that begs the question; why would they risk being labeled a dark guild, just to take us down? There has to be something else at work here; they wouldn't risk so much on such a trivial matter like revenge."

"In any case," Naruto shrugged, "…since master said that there's no need to worry about them, forget them. But, in the interest of safety, I suggest that everyone stay together in groups."

Everyone in the temporary guildhall took note of what Naruto's words. They knew that he was an experienced mage and was very powerful, as evident by him setting a guild record for most completed missions in a week as well as becoming an S-class mage in only a fortnight. The blond smiled slightly as his new family began talking amongst themselves in small groups, taking his advice.

Turning to Mirajane and Erza, he said, "Mira-chan, you and your brother are welcome to stay in my house, and Benihime-chan can bring her team along as well. My house is big enough for all of you, so don't worry. I won't take no for an answer from either of you, understand?"

Both Mirajane and Erza blushed and shook their heads in denial, making excuses about not impeding on his courtesy. Privately, however, each of them worried about what their growing feelings for the powerful young man would make them do when they'd be in such close proximity to him for extended periods of time. He smiled slightly as a bit of his dark aura leaked out and summoned that dreaded horned _hannya _mask again. The pressure of his dark aura froze the whole guild; they knew what this weight meant, especially after having seen and felt its effects after Natsu had first tried to attack him.

Lucy flinched in fear as Happy whispered, "Do not anger Naruto-_sama_ at all!"

Natsu yelled, "Aye!"

"Natsu's acting like Happy again, and Happy even used the respectful term –sama, too!" Lucy wailed.

Grey began to shiver as Elfman whispered, "Only a man can be as scary as Naruto-san!"

Erza was stunned at the ominous feeling. She'd never come face-to-face with such an intimidating little trick, and flushed slightly as the spine-chilling feeling seemingly pierced her body and froze her bones in place. Her blood ran frantically, as though the air around her had become incredibly cold all of a sudden, and she blinked as his presence suddenly acquired a crushing weight that threatened to destroy both her body and soul completely.

For her part, Mirajane was also blushing bright red, albeit for a different reason. Her heart began to beat rapidly as a warm sensation began to flow throughout her body. Her demonic side, which she hadn't even acknowledged ever since that terrible day, was screaming at her to take this dark and powerful demon as a mate and secure his considerable power for herself. As her imagination began to run away from her, images that hinted at incredible ecstasy flooded her mind.

Both of the red-faced young ladies shivered in delight as they said in unison, "Yes, Naruto-sama! We'll come with you and stay at your home!"

Naruto nodded and smiled, the strange and oppressive weight dissipating and letting everyone start breathing normally again. Lucy was scared of Naruto somewhat because he could scare Erza Scarlet herself into obedience.

But that made her start wondering about him. Naruto was a mysterious and ridiculously strong character. She could understand him scaring Natsu, but how was Erza vulnerable to his power?

Even after what little he'd told them of the **Choubuku Rinnegan**, she was no closer to really knowing anything about him. Also, why did she feel as though she knew him from somewhere?

"So, let's be on our way…" he said, grinning, before stopping in his tracks and turning back to them, looking rather sheepish. "Oh, yeah, I forgot that you guys don't know where I live. Well, you're in for a real treat, then."

He walked out, the rest of the guild in tow as they whispered amongst themselves. Naruto headed west from the trashed guildhall for about fifteen minutes before they approached a massive gate framed by the front legs of a massive ten-tailed fox statue with its mouth open in a roar. Everyone was awestruck at the size of the gate and statue. An awestruck Natsu was the first to speak. "That is so cool, Naruto!" he shouted. "Is this your home?"

Naruto smiled slightly, a sad quirk that only Erza, Mirajane and Lucy really noticed. "This might be my house, Natsu, but my home-" he cut himself off as he noticed Happy the flying cat spreading his wings and flying towards the fox statue.

"Happy, don't get too close to that statue!" he shouted, surprising the gang.

"Why?" the winged cat asked cluelessly, sitting on the statue's snout.

Then, as if to answer his question, the fox statues' eyes began to glow blood-red. The creature roared, shaking itself loose as it came to life. Happy wailed in fright as he was hurled away by the roar and latched himself to Natsu's head out of fear. The statue seemed to yawn and a ball of red energy swelled into existence from within its gaping maw. At such a close distance, such a powerful blast would definitely wipe them out. Running wouldn't let them get away from that thing with their lives.

But just as it was about to fire, Naruto flared his chakra and made everyone tremble under the weight of his power. Only a split-second of what felt like soul-crushing force was all that the statue needed to notice its master and stop its attack, returning to its original position.

A still shivering Lucy shouted to no one in particular, "What the Hell just tried to kill us?!"

"An automated defense mechanism that I designed for unwanted visitors," Naruto shrugged, prompting everyone there to turn and stare at him. "I use that giant fox golem to protect my home from outsiders, invaders, and the like. Obviously, they'll roar to warn off intruders at first, but they **will** automatically attack anything that they don't recognize."

As they continued to stare at him, he added, "My sentry will only stop when I'm nearby or if their target has been destroyed. But don't worry about that; I'm going to key each and every last one of you guys into my security systems so that it won't attack you."

The group sighed. As they walked up to the gate, it opened up automatically and the sight waiting for them left them awestruck. Naruto's house was an exotic design that featured sloping roofs that curved upwards at a gentle angle on each of its levels, and also had a large and beautiful garden surrounding a sizable reflecting pool in the front yard stationed on the left side of the paved path leading up to the large house's front door.

Standing before them, his arms spread open as if to take in such a remarkable sight, Naruto bowed at the waist in a highly exaggerated display of flamboyance before saying, "Welcome to my humble home."

Almost in unison, the whole group wondered what kind of home Naruto would consider extravagant if the exotically-designed mansion before him was little more than a house.

As he was about to usher them in, a pale-skinned woman with blond hair and light green eyes appeared and bowed to Naruto as if he was a prince. He groaned. "Maya-chan, how many times do I have to tell you not to bow to me like that?"

"I'm very sorry, Naruto-sama, but I'll never learn," the blonde woman said cheerfully. "If you hadn't come along when you had, I and my whole family would've died at the hands of those werewolves."

Naruto grumbled something about promises and saving people as an older man with dark hair and light-blue eyes also appeared and bowed at the waist as well. "You know that she's right, Naruto-sama," the slightly-tanned man said reproachfully. "As we've already told you, our family tradition states that we must serve anyone who saves our lives."

"Not you too, Marco-san!" Naruto groaned. "I thought I told you that calling me master wasn't going to fly! I'm not your master! I save anyone who's in trouble!"

"Naruto," Erza of all people was the first to interject. "If you don't mind me asking… who exactly are these people?"

"Ahh, Benihime-chan!" he started, as though he'd only just realized that he'd brought them along. "This gentleman here is Marco Polo-san and his wife Maya Polo-san. They have four beautiful children, each of whom you'll meet once you're actually inside my house."

Now Mirajane was intrigued. "How exactly did you meet them, Naruto-kun?"

"Not much of a story there, Mira-chan," the blond shinobi shrugged. "I was passing through Fiore's northwest region a while back when I came across their family surrounded by a pack of werewolves that had attacked and destroyed their village. I saved them, but couldn't get to anyone else from that village in time." He scowled as bad memories flitted to the forefront. "So I had the unique… pleasure… of exterminating that entire werewolf pack."

As they mulled over Naruto's unambiguous words, Marco added, "I'm grateful to Naruto-sama for saving my children. I have sworn myself to his service."

Naruto grumbled something as Maya said, "Naruto-sama, dinner will be served in a few minutes. Why don't we take your guests to their rooms and let them refresh themselves?"

Sighing wearily, he nodded. "Good idea, Maya-chan. You might as well let your kids show them to their quarters. I'll be up in the library."

Lucy went starry-eyed when she realized that Naruto had a library, prompting her to ask, "Naruto-san, can I go to the library with you?"

"Sure you can. **After** you eat," he replied cheerfully. "I need to do something first."

He vanished in a sudden whirlwind as both Marco and Maya showed his guests into Naruto's house.

Before they could take their master's guests to guest rooms in separate wings of Naruto's large home, the two of them and their charges were besieged by their four children.

The oldest were fifteen-year-old twins, a boy and a girl. The boy, Zigor, had green eyes and dirty-blond hair and peppered Elfman with questions about what it meant to be a man. The girl, Rozalia, had dark hair and steel-blue eyes and seemed a bit shy around Natsu and Gray, blushing ever so slightly.

The third child was Julio, all of ten years old. Curiously, he might've resembled his father Marco entirely, except that his left eye was light-green and his right eye was light-blue. He was energetic and a bit of a prankster, given that he'd tied a simple knot into Happy's tail and the flying cat had yet to notice.

Last but not least was Elizabeth, all of six years old. The girl that everyone called 'Eliza-chan' had light blond hair, sky-blue eyes, and had little freckles on her small face that had Mirajane hugging the little girl tightly and calling her adorable.

Ironically, the youngest children of the family began fighting over Happy all of a sudden. Their mother intervened, saving poor Happy from being pulled apart. The gang laughed as Happy cowered behind Natsu's head, whining something about demonic children.

The three female members of the Polo family lead Lucy, Mirajane and Erza to their quarters in the east wing of Naruto's palatial home. Mirajane asked Maya about where Naruto slept, making her giggle and wonder aloud if someone was interested in a late night visit. Her thinly-veiled insinuation left all three of them blushing in embarrassment. Adding to their shame, Maya added, "You can't miss it; just walk up the central staircase until you see an orange door. That door leads to his personal apartment. It's right next to the white door that leads up to the attic."

The girls huffed in embarrassment as Maya chuckled. "I'll tell you something else about Naruto-sama," she added, grabbing their attention. "He's a very secretive man. Not that he wants to, but he's had a lot of bad things happen to him. He must have lost someone important to him; he might seem strong, but he's actually heartbroken inside. I'm hoping that you girls might be the help that he needs to put his heart back together again."

"Don't you mean one of us would help him?" Erza asked, wondering about Maya's choice of words.

"No, I actually meant all of you," Maya said, grinning. "I think that all of you might have a connection to him somehow." Erza, Lucy, and Mirajane flushed at her insinuations, making her chuckle.

Maya stopped by a plain door and opened it, turning on its lights. Her three temporary charges found themselves impressed by the room. It was fairly large, featuring three full-sized beds. Each bed even had a personal nightstand with a small lamp placed on top of it. The room also had a big bathroom, complete with a couple of shower nozzles dangling over a rather large tub.

The girls were starry-eyed. "Wow!" Lucy squealed. "This is almost like a five-star hotel room!"

"Oh, yes," Mirajane said distractedly, more interested in looking over the room's subdued decorative style. "Even better, we don't have to be with the boys."

"We can sleep here without Natsu's snoring or Elfman's shouting," Erza added. She was more interested in marveling at the grand view of Naruto's backyard and the majesty of the mountains on the horizon.

"Naruto-sama **does** have a private hot spring," Maya mused leadingly. "Would you girls like a dip?"

"We'd love to!" a gleaming-eyed Lucy, Erza, and Mirajane all shouted in unison, dropping their bags on the floor and trooping out after the blonde woman.

Meanwhile, Marco and his two boys were introducing Gray, Elfman, and Natsu to a guest room in the west wing. But the three of them didn't want to talk; they were still too pissed about Phantom Lord's audacious attack. Stopping in front of some random door, their guide turned to them. "Here you go, boys," he said casually. "This will be your room. Just remember; don't break anything, or Naruto-sama will have your heads."

The three of them shivered, nodding feebly. Naruto's wrath was fresh memories; none of them were inclined to invite his anger anytime soon. Apparently satisfied, Marco opened the door to their room and turned on the lights. The room's subdued decorations accentuated its three beds, each with its own nightstand and small lamp. The big bathroom that was attached to the room itself was luxurious in ways that none of them had thought possible.

Predictably, Natsu took the lead. He jumped and dived onto the bed under the window, shouting, "I call this bed! It belongs to me and Happy now!"

"Aye!" Happy added merrily.

"Damn it! I wanted that bed, you hothead!" Gray bellowed, running to the nearest bed long enough to grab a pillow that he threw at Natsu, hitting him in the face.

"You icy exhibitionist prick!" the pink-haired Fire Dragon Slayer shouted, retaliating in kind. The thrown pillow hit Gray in the face with enough force to knock him out flat on the ground.

Triumphant, Natsu roared with laughter as Elfman tried to intervene. "Are you two men or not?!" he bellowed. "You should fight like men!"

He got a double strike, a pillow from both Natsu and Gray, to the face for his trouble. Growling, he snatched up the two pillows and leapt into the fray with a roar. Marco stood by the sidelines, shaking his head in exasperation.

Two hours later, the group met in the dining room for dinner. As they ate, Maya came up to Naruto, water pitcher in hand. "Naruto-sama, please lock your library so Julio-kun and Eliza-chan cannot get in and ruin your notes. You **do** remember what happened last time, yes?"

"Oh, that reminds me!" Lucy perked up. "Naruto-kun, could you please let me in your library? Pretty please?" She was all but begging him, her hands clasped together as though she was praying.

Naruto sighed. "Fine," he said, as Lucy squealed happily. He never **could** say no to a pretty face…

"Can I see your library as well?" Mirajane and Erza asked him simultaneously.

Chuckling, he nodded indulgently.

A few minutes later, with dinner over, Naruto took the girls up to his library.

Lucy gasped as she realized that she could see full bookshelves as far as the eye could see.

Erza noticed an orange-covered book, the words _Icha Icha Paradise_ denoting its title, and read only a few passages somewhere in its latter half before she started blushing horribly.

"You know, you could borrow that," Naruto said casually, from behind her. Erza started, twitching at the sheer embarrassment of her predicament. "I didn't know you were into racy smut novels, _ero-Benihime-chan_," he added, humiliating her even further. "If you'd like, I could always show you some of the moves in those books."

The heat on her face burned hotly as her host chuckled under his breath. As he pulled away, Lucy noticed some papers on a nearby table and wandered over to them. As she began reading their contents, her eyes widened as she realized what she was reading. Turning to Naruto, who'd just struck up a conversation with Mirajane, the Stellar Spirit mage yelled, "You're Hokage-sama!"

Meanwhile, in Magnolia Town, Levy McGarden and her teammates Jet and Droy were walking home together after the guildhall had closed for the night. Following Naruto's advice had been a good idea; several hooligan bands had seen them together and had all but run away from them.

They were having fun; laughing and joking around, before they were hit by something from behind and everything went black.

To be continued…


	8. Chapter 8

Hello there guys! Thank you to all my reader and reviewers for their support. I just feel surprised that people found this story awesome and I am glad you did. Sorry for being late as my job is kicking me in the nuts while boredom and the lack of any muse is chocking me to death. Also I don't even have a girlfriend! Anyways now that I have cleared my demented soul, on with the story! Thanks to my awesome Beta, again for his great work!

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: "_Naruto"_

Thoughts: _'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'_

Spell Casting and Jutsu Names: "**Katon Jutsu, Ice Make Shield**!"

Demons and Dragons Speech: **"Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"**

Demons and Dragons Thinking: _**'The question is what to do with him…'**_

**Chapter 8: Countdown to War**

**Monday, 23****rd**** August X784**

Long before the sun rose for the new day, Naruto woke up. Slipping out of bed, his need to return to his prime fighting condition was driving him to starting off an intense training routine. Using _Fūi__njutsu: Shitai Kankan Fūin_ to add weight to his body, he started off with some light calisthenics, adding his total body-weight onto his limbs for a warm-up.

He'd seen what going soft had done to the old man. He didn't want that to happen to him.

Still, whoever had made that _fūinjutsu_ had a really morbid taste in names…

Wrapping up his calisthenics within minutes, he began the workout program that he'd originally written up during the darkest days of the Fourth Great Ninja War.

He was so busy lifting a pair of enormous rocks above his head that he didn't notice that he was being watched. He used the rocks as weights for his training trying to push himself. He knew that he could easily destroy anyone using his Sage mode but he had to start from his out of practice body, then to his chakra training.

Dusting his hands off, he unsealed a pair of metallic rods and found himself smiling as he remembered his old friend Rock Lee. The bushy-browed martial arts fiend had first revealed them during that bodyguard mission to protect Hikaru, the Crown Prince of Moon Country, and his father King Michiru, from those three rogue ninja so long ago…

He pushed away the painful memories away as he activated the weight and resistance seals engraved on the metal rods. The two batons glowed light-blue as it absorbed his chakra, just before they suddenly slipped out of his hands and crashed to the ground. A loud bang kicked up a lot of flying dust, quickly clearing up to reveal a rather-large crater.

His three observers were stunned, both by the display and the sight of Naruto cursing as he struggled to lift the now super-heavy rods. His muscles bulged from the sheer strain of trying to move the rods into place, as sweat began beading upon his brow. Letting them fall upon the ground again, he wiped his brow and grimaced.

"Shit," he swore in irritation. "I'm so soft now that I can't even grab these things without using chakra. That bastard Sasuke, he'd be laughing his ass off if he saw me like this. To think, this is only the first level…" His rambling hadn't gone unnoticed. His three spies were collectively astonished by this declaration

Picking up the rods again, his muscles straining even while being infused with chakra, he twirled both of them in hand as though they were batons. Ten minutes into his training, his movements were smooth, graceful, and even faster than before. Picking up the pace, another chakra infusion only made the metallic rods even heavier. Conversely enough, he started to speed up his swings. The combat batons swept through the air, flying at such velocities that forceful blows left powerful blasts of wind in its wake.

As the vacuum blasts tore up chunks of ground and stripped bark from trees, Erza Scarlet was aghast at Naruto's display of sheer physical strength. '_He was stronger than this_?' she realized belatedly. She remembered all the times that he'd cut her armor to pieces without hurting her. '_Has he been holding himself back all this time? How strong are you, Naruto_?'

Soon enough, Naruto was so drenched in sweat that his white shirt was sticking to him and revealing the planes of his muscular torso. Stripping the soaked garment off without a second thought, a soft sigh from the bushes caught his attention. His _Choubuku Rinnegan_ flared to life, and he quickly swept an assessing gaze across the clearing. Disguising his actions by splashing water on his face, he noticed three chakra signals where none should have been there with him.

Once he finished rehydrating himself, he turned directly to where his three stalkers had hidden themselves. Smiling a little too wildly, he asked, "See something you like, ladies?"

A loud squeal of fright prompted the bush to shake itself rather vigorously as his three tails fell out of the bush and ended up piled atop each other in a heap. For some inexplicable reason, Naruto wasn't surprised that Erza, Lucy, and Mirajane had followed him.

What did surprise was the fact that they were still in their pajamas. Erza was at the bottom of the pile, wearing a pink **Heart Kreuz** pajama set. Lucy, who was laying on Erza's back, wore a white tee with a sky-blue **Heart Kreuz **logo as well and a pair of pink sleeping shorts. Last but not least was Mirajane, who'd done a belly flop on Lucy and was wearing a pale camisole and a pair of red leggings.

Naruto chuckled as he strolled up to the heap of girls. Crouching down to meet their eyes, he quipped, "I'm not one to turn down a good show, but are you three just going to lie there all morning?"

The girls had the decency to blush somewhat at his teasing as they began to climb off of each other. While doing so, though, they took the time to stare at him, trying to memorize his appearance. Now that he was shirtless, though, their attention was drawn to a large scar on his chest.

The faded blemish was about the size of a fist, and had missed his heart by an inch. The only visible defect on his body had intrigued them, never mind how Naruto had managed to survive an injury that would've killed anyone else.

Once they were all standing, Erza's bluntness had her asking, "Naruto, how did you get such a ghastly-looking scar?"

The blond _jinchūriki_ stared down at the fist-sized pockmark, running his fingers across the scar's discolored skin. "Oh, this old thing?" he asked. "It's little more than an old and unwanted memento of my past." He sounded nonchalant, but his eyes were hooded with old grievances and unwanted nostalgia.

Surprised by his abrupt change in demeanor, the girls decided against asking any more questions. Noticing the mood, he smiled broadly and boomed, "Hey, no need for all these long and gloomy faces! Go get ready for breakfast while I take a shower, eh?"

They nodded, walking back to their room. Naruto's perverted nature kicked in as he noticed an opening that he couldn't ignore. If _Ero-sennin_ had seen him, the stupid old fart would be proud of him for what he'd do next. Smirking perversely, he reached out and quickly slapped a random buttock from all three of them in one fell swoop. Before the girls could even register his impulsive act of perversion, he disappeared before the red-faced girls could turn on him in anger.

A few minutes later, having finished his shower, Naruto quickly slipped on some clothes and headed down to the dining room. He was surprised to see Erza, Lucy and Mirajane glaring at him. Much to his amusement, though, their anger was offset by the prominent blush on each of their faces. He chuckled in spite of himself. "Beautiful girls shouldn't scowl," he chided them playfully.

"Bad wrinkles would ruin those lovely faces," he clarified at their puzzled expressions. The three girls looked away, blushing furiously at the honest compliment.

Gray was stunned. Erza and Mirajane both had a history of beating up or ignoring anyone who'd even try flirting with them.

Natsu was busy arguing with Happy over what breakfast was supposed to be, so he didn't notice his teammates' interactions.

Elfman was taken aback at his older sister's behavior. He'd never seen her act like this before. Oh, sure, she could flirt like nobody else could, but she wasn't interested in general.

Maya, who'd made pancakes with bacon and eggs on the side, was smirking at her young master's perverse and flirtatious behavior.

An otherwise unremarkable breakfast was over quickly. The seven of them left Naruto's estate together, talking about mundane stuff and laughing at various jokes. When they reached the guild, they were greeted by their master Makarov Dreyar. "So… how was the sleepover at Naruto's house?" he asked slyly, waggling his eyebrows.

"It was awesome, old man!" Natsu shouted. "Naruto-_san_ had these gigantic fox golems protecting his home and they were really cool!"

"Aye! It was a gigantic fox, too!" Happy added.

"Really, now?" old man Makarov wondered.

As Natsu was ready to continue his tale, he was interrupted by one of the townsfolk running up to them. Said person actually had to stop, resting his hands on his thighs while trying to catch his breath.

"What's troubling you so much that you had to run all the way here?" the elderly master of Fairy Tail demanded.

"M- Magnolia Southgate Park!" the villager panted, guzzling a bottle of water that someone had handed to him. "Something's happened. You need to see this!"

Makarov could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise in alarm. Turning back to his subordinates, he said, "Let's go," before breaking into a run. Even as his children followed behind him, it wasn't long before his age caught up to him. His legs burned with the effort, and his lungs felt like they were on fire.

Wheezing as he began to slow down, he decided to open his mouth and tell them to go on ahead. Much to his surprise, however, a pair of strong hands scooped him up and perched him on a pair of strong shoulders. Naruto had decided to take some initiative and help him conserve some magic power.

Even as the short old man reoriented himself, he noticed that Naruto was in the lead. Erza and Mirajane were flanking his sides, while Gray and Natsu were close behind. Elfman had scooped up Lucy and had her straddling his shoulders, easily keeping up with the rest of them while keeping up the rear. Happy was close behind, somehow managing to keep up with them. But all of them had an air of grim determination; a real boost for guild morale if it hadn't come at such an uneasy time.

He was silent for the rest of the trip, trusting Erza and Mirajane to give accurate directions.

By the time they'd reached Magnolia's Southgate Park, a large crowd had gathered around its main feature, the giant tree in the park square. The speculative murmurs, interspersed with shocked exclamations and fearful muttering, did not imply anything good.

The seven of them didn't have to fight their way to the front of the crowd. Between Erza's reputation and Makarov's power, the crowd parted on both sides and made an open road all the way up to the giant tree. Amidst gasps of shock and surprise from his teammates and guild master, Naruto only frowned.

Fairy Tail's Team Shadow Gear had been beaten to a bloody pulp and left crucified on the tree. Natsu's eyes narrowed as fire exploded into existence, signifying his anger. His spiky pink hair flared into harder spikes as his eyes centered on the Phantom Lord symbol that had been branded onto Levy's stomach.

Naruto's frown deepened into a mild scowl. But where he may have looked mildly irritated, everyone around him could feel his killing intent. A dark and cold surge of sheer bloodlust suddenly exploded into existence, washed over them like a crashing tidal wave. Everyone there blinked, seeing their lives flashing before their eyes and dying a thousand deaths in pain that could only be remedied by-

But then Naruto took a single deep breath, and the dreadful bloodlust and raw malevolence disappeared without a trace. He may have seemed calm, but his eyes were still hard even under the shadow of his spiky bangs.

For his part, Makarov was visibly aghast. He was sputtering at the sheer indignity of such an audacious display meant to provoke him into unwanted action.

Oh, yes. This was provocation.

Phantom Lord hadn't exactly been subtle. First, the iron spears thrown into the guildhall, and now they target his children?

Unacceptable.

As he stared up at where Levy, Jet, and Droy were still hanging from their restraints, Erza called out to him. "Master…"

"I like the fact that our guild sometimes becomes a rundown beer hall, I can tolerate spears being thrown at our home, but no parent can stand idle while the blood of his children is on the line!" he bellowed as the old man's magic exploded into existence under the full force of his righteous fury. The golden-white light of his magic was so powerful that his magic actually destroyed his magic staff and buffeted everyone around him with the sheer force of his magical power. Powerful winds flew every which way, kicking up dust and sending small rocks flying everywhere and forcing his subordinates to cover their faces.

"This means war!" Makarov Dreyar shouted, too angry to act.

Naruto scowled but nodded nonetheless. Vanishing in _Shunshin no jutsu_, a quick hand-sign later had four _Kage Bunshin_ appear. The original formed a wind blade around two of his fingers, quickly cutting Team Shadow Gear while his _Kage Bunshin_ caught their limp bodies and quickly jumped down to the ground.

He was about to take them to the hospital when Lucy stopped him and his _Kage Bunshin_ in their tracks. "What's wrong, Lucy?" he asked, being a little cold to her what with his guild mates being injured and all. "Can this wait until I get these three to the hospital?"

She flinched again, but not of fear. However small, she did nurse a pinch of attraction to him with his cold and assertive attitude.

No, she was lying to herself. She was so scared that she couldn't trust her voice. What she said instead was, "Naruto-_san_, could you take me to the hospital, too? I'd like to stay with Levy-_chan_."

He nodded, adding another _Kage Bunshin_ to the group. It swept her off her feet, slinging her up in a bridal carry and left her blushing. The _Kage Bunshin_ all sped off without saying a word, already knowing their orders.

"Master," Naruto turned to Makarov, "…since this is obviously a trap designed to lure us into a war that we might not be prepared for, I'd like to discuss the terms of our preemptive assault with you if you don't mind."

"Why would I do that, Naruto?" the old man snapped, still angry.

Naruto sighed. "I've told you about me before, remember? Back home, I used to be something of a battlefield general." Erza and Mirajane turned to stare at the jinchūriki, taken off-guard by his casual declaration. They'd known that he had plenty of hidden depths, but the idea of Naruto being a soldier fresh from a war seemed like such an alien concept.

If that wasn't enough, though, he was some kind of battlefield general, too!

What magic could possibly do such things to a man?

"Beyond that, I'm still a soldier who fought in an actual war," the blond continued. "If only by default, I have the most experience with matters of actual warfare."

When Makarov tried to object, Naruto's mild scowl deepened. "In that vein," he interrupted the old man, "…I'm asking for this meeting in order to establish a battle plan and other contingencies. That way, if anything happens to you and/or the others, I'll know what to do in order to prevent any more casualties on our side."

Sighing, the old guild master conceded to one of his most powerful subordinates. "Okay… okay, okay. Fine, Naruto; you'll help with the war effort. But I have one condition."

Curious in spite of himself, the blond jinchūriki nodded. "Please… please remember the rules of our guild. Don't kill them."

Naruto growled at what he considered Makarov's narrow-minded idealism, but nodded curtly nonetheless. He hadn't let himself seriously entertain the idea of mercy in battle for a long time. But could he seriously be angry at such sentiments?

From what he'd read in Era, the land of Fiore had been at peace for a long time. Serious warfare was the stuff of history books, for scholars and historians to examine. Even wars between legal guilds were few and far-between these days.

Could his rules of war really apply here?

Could he afford to think otherwise?

"Fine," he said finally, his voice tight with disapproval. "In return, I want you to control yourself and stay away from the battlefield. I won't disappoint you otherwise."

Abruptly, he popped his neck. "If you'll excuse me, master, I'll have to finalize our battle plan." Vanishing in _Hiraishin no jutsu_, Naruto left Makarov alone with Erza and the others.

The old man sighed. "That boy's going to be trouble one day," he grumbled.

Turning to Erza, he added, "Well, you heard him. Let the whole guild know that we're going to war. We'll listen to his plan, and you'll be his second-in-command. Understood?"

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Naruto had unexpectedly revealed another aspect of himself. A man experienced with the horrors of war. He had even lead soldiers into battle, watching them kill or be killed on the field.

Why wouldn't he talk to her? To anyone?

An hour later, Naruto sat down with Master Makarov and Erza at a table in the guildhall's basement in order to discuss the particulars of the upcoming battle.

"A cool head is essential when winning a fight," he lectured. "We won't beat Phantom Lord if we attack them now, all furious about this whole situation. The best thing we can do is to start combat preparations all throughout the morning and then attacking them just after high noon. That way, the enemy won't be expecting our assault."

Sighing, he popped his knuckles. "Even though strategy says that no plan survives first contact with the enemy, our casualties should be minimal. If they eat lunch, they'll be digesting and will be caught off-guard. If they don't eat, then their hunger should be able to weaken them."

For her part, Erza was surprised by Naruto's strategic capability. His battle plan was centered on minimizing casualties, covert movement, and seemed to be the easiest way to seize victory. A cowardly tactic, perhaps, but catching the enemy off-guard was always the most-convenient way to fight. So the heart and soul of a soldier beat strongly in his chest.

Makarov was taken aback by Naruto's tactical mind. There was every indication that his newest son had whipped up his plan on the fly, which was an impressive feat. He also caught what Naruto hadn't said; if they could catch their enemy off-guard, then there was every chance that death would meet at least one person during the battle.

"From what we know of our enemy, the Phantom Lord guild has a large number of branches all across Fiore. Which one do you think is the main one, master?"

"Well, their main branch is in Oak Town, I know that much," the old man shrugged. Amidst incredulous looks from both Erza and Naruto, he added, "I never really talked to Phantom Lord's master, you see…"

"That's good to know, nonetheless." Erza sighed. "But what do we do about the other branches? We all know that Phantom Lord outnumbers us three-to-one, they might attack our guild while we go to attack theirs."

"In that vein, then… Master, can you order one of our S-class members to attack and destroy Phantom Lord's branch establishments, just to make sure?" Naruto asked.

"Easily," Makarov nodded. "But I think that I'll ask Mystogan to do it. Laxus and his team are on an S-class quest and Gildarts is still on that hundred-year quest."

Naruto then turned to Erza. "Do you have an idea who their strongest mages are, Erza-_chan_?"

Flushing red at his familiarity, she nonetheless nodded. "Under the master, Jose Porla, are five S-class mages by Phantom Lord's standards. The strongest of them is '_Kurogane_' Gajeel Redfox. He's a Dragon Slayer, like Natsu, but for a different type of dragon. His _Tetsu no Metsuryū Mahō_,or _Iron Dragon Slayer Magic_, means that metal weapons are useless on him."

The blond winced at this assertion, but only Makarov caught it as Erza continued, "After him are the _Elemental Four_-"

"Wait, wait, let me guess," Naruto interrupted her. "Each of them are proficient with one of the four main elements; earth, air, fire, and water. These are the balanced, yet conflicting, elements of the world and allow for a great deal of power available to each of these people."

Erza was surprised by his sharp intuition. She didn't understand his sarcasm either, but continued her briefing while trying to ignore her feelings.

"First is 'Great Sky' Aria, a very skilled user of _Airspace Magic_." Naruto's eyes narrowed in calculation. This Aria character sounded like a _Fūton_ master, which meant that he might have to break out his _Katon jutsu_ in order to deal with such a man.

"Next up is 'Rain Woman'Juvia Lockser. She's very skilled with Water Magic, to the point where she can actually convert her body **into** water in order to avoid physical and even certain magical attacks." **That** got his attention like nothing before. If this Juvia had powers equal to that annoying prick _Hōzuki Suigetsu_, then he had to revise their battle plan immediately.

"Third up is Totomaru the Conflagration. He's obviously a powerful Fire Magic user of some kind." Naruto had no comment for a man with such a mild-sounding epithet.

"Last but not least is Sol of the Land. He uses Earth Magic and supposedly uses Sand Magic as well." Again, Naruto had to wonder what kind of special trick this character used.

Finally absorbing Erza's information on their enemy, Naruto nodded contemplatively. Then he looked up at her with his deep blue eyes and smiled, making her feel somewhat self-conscious and start blushing under his soul-piercing gaze.

That was before he ruined the moment by opening his big mouth. "Hey, how do you know all this, _Benihime-chan_? Do you have a crush on someone in that guild or something?"

Her face red with indignation, Erza sputtered as her right eyebrow twitched violently. She could only barely manage to reign in her anger at such a stupid question and the even-more idiotic notion that she'd have feelings for someone in Phantom Lord.

Makarov could barely keep himself from guffawing out loud. He knew what Naruto was doing. Her confusion over the exact nature of her feelings for him meant that she couldn't just lash out at him automatically. He was glad that the young _shinobi_ had joined his guild; he'd made Erza happy, even if she wouldn't admit it out loud.

But his good mood soured as Naruto turned to him. "Master, I think that you should stay at the guild while we handle the frontlines. As our leader, you're the most-important part of our efforts. Please stay behind and command the troops. If anything were to happen to you, morale would plummet and we'd lose the momentum of our attack."

"He's right, Master," Erza chimed in, briefly glaring at Naruto. "You're our master, our father, and our symbol of strength. If something were to happen to you during the battle, we'll automatically lose."

The old man's face grimaced at the way two of his children had ganged up on him. No matter how he could try to argue, he knew they were right. Jose was a fellow Wizard Saint, after all, and a powerful wizard. Jose would have no compunction against using underhanded tricks in order to get what he wanted.

He sighed, giving in to their demands. "All right, you damn nosy brats!" he snorted. "I'll do as you ask, and stay back to defend the guild while you go attack Phantom Lord's headquarters. But I **do** have one condition…"

"…which is?" Naruto prompted.

"You two are the only S-class mages that we have right now, which means that you're the only ones who can fight Jose **if** he's there," he lectured them seriously. "So you have an extra responsibility; make sure that none of the other brats fight him, understood?"

When they nodded, his eyes faded into reminiscence. "Plus I get to be with Mira-_chan_ all day," he mused, giggling in a strangely-familiar and perverse fashion.

Naruto sweatdropped. '_Is this how master's going to act? He reminds me so much of both the old man and Ero-sennin that it's scary_!'

Erza had ignored Makarov completely, too lost in her own thoughts to listen to his sagely advice. '_Great! Now I can see Naruto-kun at his best in combat! Every time he fights, he never displays his full power. Almost like he is afraid of revealing them or something_…'

"Nevertheless, I think that Jose of Phantom Lord is up to something," Naruto said finally, snapping her out of her thoughts. "We really should talk more, _Benihime-chan_; looks like master won't be talking again anytime soon…"

She nodded, following him out of the guild's impromptu briefing room and left Makarov alone with his pleasant thoughts and fantasies.

**Original Jutsu Dictionary**

_Fūinjutsu: Shitai Kankan Fūin_ – Sealing Technique: Four-Body Weighing Seal

To be continued…


	9. Chapter 9

Hello there guys! Thank you to all my reader and reviewers for their support. I just feel surprised that people found this story awesome and I am glad you did. Thanks to my awesome Beta again for his great work! By the way the next chapter might take a while as I am having a huge work load in my job… anyways on with the story!

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: "_Naruto"_

Thoughts: _'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'_

Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "**Katon Jutsu, Ice Make Shield**!"

Demons and Dragons Speech: **"Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"**

Demons and Dragons Thinking: _**'The question is what to do with him…'**_

**Chapter 9: Confrontations**

**Tuesday, 24****th**** August X784, Magnolia Hospital**

Lucy Heartfilia stood at the foot of Team Shadow Gear's beds. She'd struck up a fast friendship with them after its only female member, petite blue-haired Levy McGarden, had revealed a similar love of books and knowledge.

Levy was her first girl friend of the same age.

Lucy felt a special connection to her. She even remembered how they first met…

**{Flashback Begins}**

"_Lu-chan, I heard something interesting about you. You're writing a novel, aren't you?" said Levy as she sat by Lucy's side._

"_Uwah… So it got out and I think I know who might have opened their large mouth," said Lucy as a blue wing cat sneezed on his pink hair companion angering him and starting a fight in the guild again._

"_My name is Levy, Levy McGarden and I'm 17 years old: just like you, Lu-chan! Also this is Jet and Droy. We are in the same team called Shadow Gear."_

"_Yo!" greeted Jet as his friend Droy drooled over Lucy saying, "Oh she's so cute." _

"_I am horrible at writing but I love to read! Could I read your novel sometime, if you don't mind?" inquired the petite bluenette mage._

_Lucy not used to attention as a writer shyly said, "N-no… It's not something I can show people yet."_

"_What are you talking about? Isn't the purpose of a novel to read by the public? Also what's the point in writing one if you aren't going to show anyone?" stated the speed mage._

_Droy added his two cents saying, "As they say; being a novelist is like exposing your bare butt in public."_

_Lucy blushed at his words as she moved her hands to cover her derriere._

_Levy enthusiastically said, "Show me! Please show me! Not your butt, I mean." _

"_I-it's not done yet…" said the Celestial Spirit Mage._

"_Then, when you do finish writing it, please let me be the first to read it?" said Levy hopefully._

"_O-okay…" was the only thing she could say before the bluenette screamed, "Yay! It's a promise then!"_

**{Flashback End}  
**

..The Celestial Spirit mage smiled weakly, waxing nostalgic over the memory of her first meeting with Team Shadow Gear. They'd managed to extract a promise from her to read her novel before anyone else, and had cheered so hard that she'd gotten caught up in their sentiments in spite of herself.

Now… now, some of her new friends had gotten hurt.

Tears began to gather in Lucy's eyes at this indignity visited upon her new family. "I can never forgive them, you guys… teach Phantom Lord a lesson that they'll never forget!"

Leaving the hospital once visiting hours were over, she made her way back to the guild hall in short order. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on perspective) for her, the guild was empty. Mirajane was the only one there; the rest of the guild had left to fight Phantom Lord.

Seeing Mirajane's depression made Lucy feel sad, especially since Levy and her teammates were still in the hospital. So she decided to go shopping for groceries as a way to keep herself busy and to not feel so useless. Plus, she wanted to take care of her injured friends, anyway.

By the time she'd finished shopping, it'd suddenly started to rain.

She sighed wearily, about to run for shelter from the storm before she noticed someone walking towards her. The Celestial Spirit mage wondered who exactly would be out in the weather at a time like this.

"Steadily and silently; Juvia is the rain woman, after all…"

Lucy frowned somewhat, her hackles rising in the fact of this strange woman. The young woman calling herself Juvia was a slender, young woman about her age. She had blue hair curled up into tight rolls hanging at the base of her neck under a dark-brown fur hat with a gold butterfly pin, dark-blue eyes, pale skin, and a rather curvaceous figure concealed beneath a knee-length double-breasted coat that had fur-lined cuffs and a furry collar. For some reason, she had a _teru teru bōzu_ attached to her coat.

As Lucy passed her, Juvia asked, "Who are you?"

Caught off guard, Lucy riposted, "Who are **you**?"

Seemingly ignoring her question, Juvia opened up a pink umbrella. "Steadily and silently," the blue-haired Water Mage repeated. "It was a pleasure. Fare thee well."

Given that most of her friends in the guild could be surprisingly slow-minded, Lucy snapped a little. "Eh?! What was that all about?!" she demanded.

Then a weird male voice could be heard all around her, repeating the word _non_ over and over again. A weird being seemed to grow out of the very ground behind Lucy, quickly revealing himself to be the source of the repetition. He was a slim man of about average height, with a pencil-thin mustache of green hair and similarly-colored hair set in upward spikes from the back of his head. His right eye was hidden behind a monocle attached to a slim chain.

His fashion sense was as bizarre as his face, given that he was wearing a brownish suit with a ragged collar bearing three prominent protrusions jutting outwards on each side. His tie and shoes were plain and unremarkable, but the short opera cape linked to both of his elbows left him cutting a bizarre figure with quite the eccentric sense of personal design.

"Bonjour, with non in a 3-3-7 rhythm," he said aloud, giving Lucy a short bow. Then turning to Juvia, he added, "Juvia-sama, you mustn't abandon your job now."

"Another weirdo?!" the blonde Celestial Spirit mage shrieked at the sight of the strange green-haired man.

"Monsieur Sol," Juvia nodded.

"My monocle," the bizarre man intoned, suddenly appearing at Juvia's side, "…it whispers to me, and it tells me that this mademoiselle is our beloved _cible_."

"Oh my, so it was this girl?" the blue-haired Water Mage asked.

Lucy was caught by surprise before noticing that they meant that she was their target.

"Pardon my lack of manners," the orange-suited man bowed to her again. "My name is Sol, one of the Element Four. But people call me Sol of the Land, and you may call me Monsieur Sol!"

"So you're from Phantom Lord?" the blonde girl demanded, her fingers hovering over the key ring hanging from her waist.

"Correct!" Sol exclaimed, his body actually wriggling in place like a wind-swept piece of blighted grass. "Both of us have come to collect you for the great Phantom Lord!"

Pointing to his partner, he added, "…and she is the Rain Woman of the Element-Four! Allow me to introduce Juvia of the Sea!"

Lucy scowled. "You're the ones that attacked Levy-chan!" but before she could grab one of her Celestial Spirit keys, her body was surrounded by a large watery ball courtesy of Juvia.

"Non, non, non!" Sol shouted indignantly, stamping a foot like he was actually about to throw a tantrum. "With these three non, I will correct your mistake! Destroying your guild and attacking Levy-sama was all the work of Gajeel-sama!"

Then he trailed off, suddenly introspective. "Well, it's true that all of us in the guild were for the idea, however…" he admitted, fiddling with his moustache.

Lucy thrashed about in her fluidic cage. "What is this?!" she shouted, bubbles of carbon dioxide escaping from her mouth. "Let me go!"

"Juvia's **Water Lock** cannot be broken."

Spots danced across Lucy's vision. Her lungs burned in a futile quest for air. As darkness overwhelmed her, she knew nothing else.

The **Water Lock** dispersed itself with a loud splash, as Lucy's unconscious body fell to the ground. "Juvia will not harm you, Lucy Heartfilia. Target acquired."

Sol reached down to sling the unconscious Celestial Spirit Mage over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. The ground seemed to swallow the three of them, leaving Lucy's Celestial Spirit Keys behind as the only trace.

Meanwhile, Phantom Lord was throwing a huge party at their Oak Town headquarters. The beer flowed freely, raucous laughter rang out, and food was being consumed as quickly as it could be set out. The occasional brawl broke out, but quickly petered out in the face of the general atmosphere.

"Dahahaha!" one of Phantom Lord's unremarkable members cackled, a half-eaten drumstick in hand. "Did you see what Gajeel did to those Fairy shits?!"

"Those Fairies got their asses burned really badly!" another one jeered to hooting laughter, red-faced in his near-inebriation while swinging a half-empty tureen about wildly.

A nondescript fat man pulled a long cigar out of his mouth long enough to say, "That's not all I heard. Apparently, Gajeel attacked three of their members only last night!"

"By the way," the first guy added, "…do any of you know who we're not supposed to hurt or touch? Master told you guys earlier while I was sleeping."

"Oh, _that_ person," a thuggish man from another table joined in. "I don't know, actually… Master just told us to _stay away_, or something like that…"

The first man shrugged, pouring himself a beer and sitting down. "Ahh, whatever!" he sneered, raising his tureen. "Here's to those pathetic Fairies!"

His neighbor cheered with him as well as he added, "I'll bet that they're trembling in their boots right now, with their tails between their legs!"

Suddenly, a massive explosion leveled the front door and sent several people flying across the length of the banquet hall. When the smoke and dust cleared, a distinctive mop of spiky bright-pink hair and an all-too familiar and dreadful mark was the first thing that anyone could see.

Natsu Dragneel stood at the head of an army of angry faces from their most hated enemy; Fairy Tail. A second of eerie silence fell upon the room, as dumbfounded Phantom Lord mages stared at their attackers for a split-second before Natsu charged into the fray with a roar. His friends were quick to follow, and the battle was on.

Fairy Tail's forces might have been outnumbered two-to-one, but their anger was the stuff of legend and more than made up for their lack of numbers.

Five mages attacked Natsu at the same time and a quick **Karyū no Yokugeki** generated a lashing explosion that sent the peons flying. "Anyone will do!" he roared, feeling cocky as usual. "Bring it on!" Several more mages charged at him, but a quick **Karyū no Tekken** set them on fire and hurled them back into their comrades.

Erza was on a roll. Her superhuman strength and her swordsmanship skills decimated everyone who threw themselves at her. She didn't exactly give mercy, but she was plowing through their ranks like a scythe through wheat. Single sword strikes would generate vacuum blades that tore up everything in sight, sending mages flying everywhere. Some even crashed into their comrades and bowled them over like tenpins.

Meanwhile, Naruto was moving through the battlefield like a war god. Nobody in Phantom Lord could see anything more than a flash of yellow before they were hit with overwhelming concussive force. He'd restricted himself to taijutsu because everything else in his arsenal was designed for death and destruction; not exactly well-received in Fiore. The few mages who actually got close enough to try hitting him were promptly frozen in place with his killing intent and even fell unconscious spontaneously.

Phantom Lord's rank-and-file were terrified. Fairy Tail's assault couldn't have come at a worse time, and both the infamous Titania and the fleet-footed Demon King were leading the assault. Nobody could touch these two, never mind being able to actually launch their attacks. The two of them were knocking out their opponents in record-time single blows fueled by superhuman strength and were **still** holding themselves back.

Even as Erza continued to cut down her opponents mercilessly, she was coordinating her attacks with Naruto. Changing her weapons and fighting styles on the fly, the two of them were cutting down mages left and right with vicious improvised combo attacks.

Gray was freezing enemies left and right in their tracks with **Ice Make: Spray** while blasting those behind him with **Ice Make:** **Lance**, generating a forest of icy spears that pierced feet, calves, and even thighs that left various enemy mages screaming in pain.

Loke was using his **Ring Magic**, throwing tornadoes and twisters at those who dared attack his guild. Between the sweeping dust plumes that sand-blasted everything within reach, and the debris that pummeled everything else, he was causing a great deal of damage.

Between Macao Conbolt's **Purple Flare:** **Purple Net** and Wakaba Mine's **Smoke Magic:** **Smoke Crush**, a doubly-effective combination attack saw solidified violet flame wrapping up a dozen enemy mages in a single deployment. Right before fists made of corporeal smoke lashed out and pummeled the Phantom Lord rank-and-file into unconsciousness.

The guild's resident gunslinger, Alzack Connell, knocked out a lot of them with his **Guns Magic**, firing bursts of ball lightning and electrocuting everyone he hit. He sighed, flipping open the loading chamber of his weapon in order to reload it. He would've been blindsided by an opportunistic Phantom Lord mage armed with some kind of club if not for Fairy Tail's resident sniper, his partner Bisca Mulan and her own gun-type **Kansō **magic.

Even Natsu's pet flying cat Happy was fighting, smacking Phantom Lord mages around with a large fish in each of his stubby little paws.

In a Darwinistic display of idiocy, a number of Phantom Lord's mages attacked Makarov, having underestimated him because of his old age. He suddenly grew in size, to a point where his head nearly scraped the room's ceiling before crushing everyone who attacked him. One of his victims exclaimed, "He's a monster!"

"You laid your hands on this monster's children!" Makarov bellowed, his voice shaking dust loose from the ceiling. "Don't think any human laws will protect you!"

Naruto, who was scanning the entire battlefield while still fighting, suddenly noticed that none of the Elemental Four were there. He was puzzled. Why would Phantom Lord not want to deploy its aces in an assault like this?

But he **did** notice the presence of the same mage who'd attacked Team Shadow Gear, and suddenly his questions were driven out of his mind by way of having to crush some random thug's nose.

Makarov cleared a path for himself with only his magical power; a testament to his sheer power. Not forgetting his children, he shouted into the fray, "Erza, you and Naruto are responsible for the fight here. I'll go face Jose and finish this." Having said his piece, he made his way up to where he could sense his fellow Wizard Saint.

He didn't stay behind long enough to hear the two of them yell their affirmatives back to him. He was so angry that his magic lashed out like whips, smashing apart everything in his way. Each step seemed to cause a new earthquake, terrifying Phantom Lord's members out of their wits while encouraging Fairy Tail's army to fight even harder in the face of their master's wrath. His magic energy was spiking to unbelievable heights as he stomped his way towards Phantom Lord's master, Jose Porla.

As soon as the third Master of Fairy Tail left the battlefield, a shadow fell upon Phantom Lord's logo and crushed it, releasing a large cloud of dust and debris. Naruto knew the figure's identity immediately, recognizing his distinct energy signature as being identical to the metal pillars that had destroyed their guildhall.

Appearing behind Erza with **Shunshin no jutsu**, he said, "Hey, Benihime-chan, that Gajeel guy just showed up. I'll take him on, you manage the battle."

She frowned somewhat, waiting for the dust cloud to clear. Her eyes widened as she recognized the figure emerging from the fading dust cloud. "Iron Dragon Slayer, _Kurogane_ Gajeel… that could only be him."

Gajeel Redfox cut quite the imposing figure. Gajeel is a tall and muscular young man with long, spiky black hair, which he kept slicked back, revealing his forehead. He had red eyes with slitted dark pupils and no visible eyebrows.

As proof of being a Dragon Slayer he has a much longer and shaper canine teeth than normal. Most of his exposed body is covered in sets of simple, round studs. The most visible studs are on his face, with three of them above each of his eyes, acting as "eyebrows" of a sort, three on each side of his nose, and two on his chin, just below his mouth. His ears are adorned by two sets of five earrings each. He also sports four studs on each of his forearms, with his right one being covered in scars. He bore the mark of the Phantom Lord stamp on his right shoulder.

He announced himself by slamming Nab Lasaro and Warren Rocko of Fairy Tail down to the ground with his **Tetsu no Metsuryū Mahō** and incidentally knocked out whichever of his teammates who just happened to get in his way. His lips curled into a sneering grin. "Hey there, scum!" he jeered. "Come get me! The Iron Dragon Slayer, Gajeel-sama, at your service!"

Naruto, who'd relied on sheer physical ability to punch out his opponents up until then, was quick to realize that he'd have to infuse his fists with chakra before he could hurt the iron mage significantly. But Elfman took the lead, charging recklessly as he shouted, "I might be trash, but I'm a man!"

He jumped up high, a fist curled back and ready to swing in with a punch as his right arm changed to a scaly lizard-like arm. Between the speed of his partial transformation, and his reckless charge, all Gajeel had to do to defend himself was to convert his left arm into an iron slab. "Huh. So you're Elfman," the Iron Dragon Slayer observed.

Elfman only just dodged Gajeel's right jab, with a quick **Tetsuryūkon**, by tilting his head to the right. A left hook produced similar results, so the Iron Dragon Slayer kicked out with a **Tetsuryūkon**-enhanced leg sweep. But Elfman grabbed the iron-hardened leg quite easily, actually amusing Gajeel enough for him to declare, "Not bad."

"A man must be strong." Elfman grinned.

"Then how about this?" Gajeel demanded, just as pillars of iron shot out of his ankles and lashed out indiscriminately at both his enemies and allies.

The masculinity-obsessed mage was furious. "Damn you!" he snarled, glancing out at the devastation. "You'd even attack your own comrades?!"

"Where d'ya think you're lookin'?" Gajeel sneered, a **Tetsuryūkon**-enhanced arm punching Elfman in the face. Now bleeding from a grazed head and a split lip, his reckless charge was interrupted as Natsu used his head as a spring board to charge at Gajeel, fists ablaze.

The reckless Fire Dragon Slayer surprised Gajeel enough that he let the fiery punch actually land on him, and the vicious blow to his jaw sent him flying across the room and crashing into the bar. Without looking back, Natsu said, "Elfman, leave me this guy to me!"

"Why you little…!" the Beast Arm of Fairy Tail sputtered indignantly. "Not only do you use me like a floor mat, but now you want to take my manly one-on-one fight as well?!"

Gajeel threw himself back into the fight with a **Tetsuryūkon **that Natsu caught but was pushed back several feet. As he struggled to keep himself from being overtaken by the iron club, the pink-haired Fire Dragon Slayer growled, "This guy busted up the guild and hurt Levy, Jet and Droy!"

Suddenly, his magic power blazed anew and covered his entire being in a reddish-orange flame aura. A deep roar of effort emerged from deep in his lungs as he grabbed the long club, just before he threw the iron pillar skyward. Gajeel retracted the **Tetsuryūkon** as he hit a ceiling rafter, pushing himself back down towards Natsu.

Already prepared, the hothead blocked Gajeel's punch with his left hand and slammed his right fire-fist into Gajeel's jaw, sending him flying across the room and into a wall. The resulting explosion left his body covered by rubble.

Grimacing, Elfman shouted, "Natsu! I'll let you have that manly battle! But in return…"

"Of course! I'll knock him good!"

"That didn't affect me at all!" the Iron Dragon Slayer sneered as he crawled out from his impromptu cairn. "Is that all you've got, Salamander?"

"Doesn't look like that to me." Natsu scoffed. "This is just a friendly hello from one dragon to another."

Just as the two of them were about to clash again, a massive tremor shook the entire hall amidst a massive blast of magical lightning.

Fairy Tail's warriors knew exactly who was causing such damage; their master Makarov.

Cheers rang out as their fighting spirit had been bolstered.

Erza however, was not as reassured as they were. "Be careful, my…" but her next words were never heard, as the cacophony of the clashing magic rang out.

To be continued…


	10. Chapter 10

Hello there guys! Thank you to all my reader and reviewers for their support. I just feel surprised that people found this story awesome and I am glad you did.

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: "_Naruto"_

Thoughts: _'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'_

Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "**Katon Jutsu, Ice Make Shield**!"

Demons and Dragons Speech: **"Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"**

Demons and Dragons Thinking: _**'The question is what to do with him…'**_

**Chapter 10 – All's fair in War!**

Makarov Dreyar was truly angry for the first time in a very long time. Phantom Lord had crossed a line, and they were celebrating; completely ignorant of the consequences. Well, his children might be giving those brats in the rank-and-file a much-needed spanking, but the guild's master Jose Porla was a different matter.

Being a Wizard Saint himself, Jose was monstrously powerful, and Makarov didn't want to injure his own children accidentally while fighting his comrade-turned-enemy. That had been his rationale for stowing away in Erza's luggage and joining them, anyway…

His magic responded to his anger by transforming into a geyser of magical firepower that shook the entire building, as his instinctive **Giant's Wrath** spell lashed out to smash the walls around him and shattering nearby windows.

Finally reaching Jose's chamber, he lashed out and blew the door to smithereens. "Jose!" he bellowed. "Come out and face me!"

Stalking into the room, a man out for blood, his magic washed over the room like a tidal wave. Oddly, Jose was sitting in a throne-like chair quite coolly.

Barely able to restrain his anger, Makarov ground out, "Jose… what the Hell do you think you're doing?"

"Why, hello there," the master of Phantom Lord mused, unconcerned. "Long time no see, Makarov."

He was completely unfazed by how much power Fairy Tail's master was generating. "Six years must have passed since our last regular meeting, wasn't it?" he mused aloud, his voice a measured nonchalance. "I was so wasted that day…"

Angry and at the end of his rope, Makarov lashed out with a gigantic fist at Jose, seemingly crushing him and his throne.

"I'm not here to reminisce with you, Jose," the angry old mage snarled.

But Jose appeared without a single scratch, his appearance flickering as the illusion of his presence began to fade.

Makarov scowled. "So that's why I couldn't feel your presence here; you're busy sustaining this **Thought Projection**. Then you've already left the guild?"

"A battle among two of the Ten Wizard Saints of Fiore would cause an extraordinary cataclysm to occur." Jose smirked at Makarov's building anger, adding, "I prefer a rational victory."

Makarov growled but he couldn't blame his enemy's intelligence. "Where are you?! Come and fight me, fair and square!"

Jose smirked as a figure seemed to materialize at his feet. Much to Makarov's astonishment and fear, he knew who it was. One of his newest members of his family, young Lucy, now tied up and laid at Jose's feet right before his very eyes.

Cold sweat began to form on his forehead. "W- why?" Makarov demanded.

Jose ignored his question, pulling out a short knife and holding it over Lucy's helpless body, making her. Makarov's parental instincts went into overdrive. "No! Stop!" he shouted.

Then he suddenly felt a presence behind him. "Oh, there's no way that we'd kill _Lucy_ _Heartfilia-sama_, now is there?" Makarov had no time to wonder why Lucy's family name seemed to ring a bell with him before he was rendered defenseless at the hands of Aria the Great Sky, as the suddenly-crying mage attacked him with some kind of spell that drained him of all his power. The resulting explosion left a hole in the floor leading down into the guildhall's dining room.

As he fell, Jose's last words echoed in his mind. "Please don't tell me that you didn't know who she was when she joined your guild, Makarov."

But before he could take Jose's parting words into consideration, a defeated Makarov Dreyar slammed into the guildhall floor with considerable force. A large crater formed under his prone body, kicking up clouds of dust and smoke that covered his impact.

The Fairy Tail expedition froze, unsure if the impossible had truly happened.

Above them, a male voice wailed theatrically, "So sorrowful, it's too sorrowful! Where does this sorrow come from? Ah! Is this the sorrow due to the world losing a great mage?"

Erza was terrified, standing in place and staring at where her master's body would lay prone. He was the strongest warrior that she knew, the pillar that she had yet to surpass, but here he lay defeated. She was so busy trying to reconcile the disparity of her knowledge against reality that she never noticed a streak of wet warmth running down her face from her uncovered left eye. Before her emotions can escape her iron control, a massive explosion suddenly cleared the smoke and dust away from the macabre scene.

Ice water seemed to run down her spine as a familiar figure seemed to materialize from the dispersing haze. The dark power of his murderous intent paralyzed everyone in Phantom Lord's guildhall, both Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord alike, as each of second passed echoed ominously in their hearts and minds.

Naruto Uzumaki, the Yellow Flash and Demon King of Fairy Tail, appeared in the place of a defeated Makarov. Popping his neck, relieving some tension, he slowly looked up at the hole in the ceiling and frowned when he noticed Aria peering down through the hole and gazing at him.

His eyes flashed into the **Chōbuku Rinnegan** in response to his emotional turmoil, but his militaristic rationality overrode his anger. Ignoring the impulse to jump up through the hole in the ceiling and attack Aria, he instead knelt down as he gathered the natural energy slowly refilling his reserves. He sighed in relief while mentally musing, '_I have lost more than 75 percent of my chakra due to that spell… I must finish this as soon as possible.'_

The unexpected appearance of the second Yellow Flash surprised everyone excluding Erza while it left an important question in the air, '_W__here was the real Master Makarov then?_'

"Are you all right, Naruto-kun?" Erza was standing behind him, wearing her **Tenrin no Yoroi** and looking magnificent as usual.

"I'll be fine." Naruto reported, mentally running a check on himself with a bit **senjutsu**chakra his body. "Whatever Aria did to me seems to have inhibited my own body's natural ability to automatically use my chakra as well as draining me of it. This effect is only temporary, therefore I wouldn't need any immediate medical attention."

"Good…" the red head sighed. "I'm glad that you'll be okay, Naruto-kun." She thought that he might have been defeated or worse.

The **kage bunshin** Naruto had left vanished leaving a cloud of smoke allowing him to gain a bit of his chakra back.

Meanwhile, Aria the Great Sky was aghast. He hadn't expected Master Jose's plan to draw out and remove Makarov to fail in such a fashion, and he didn't like the idea that their original target might be discovered.

Gajeel, who'd joined him by now, smirked at his fear. "Heh, looks like Master's plan backfired!" he guffawed loudly.

"We must leave and inform the master!" Aria snapped as the chilling tendrils of Naruto's murderous intent seemed to crawl up his legs.

The Iron Dragon Slayer frowned as Naruto's barely-restrained bloodlust for himself and grimaced. "I don't like running away from a fight, but you're right. For once in your life…"

Aria cast a spell that made the two of them vanish in a swirl of wind, leaving their guildmates behind to face Fairy Tail's wrath.

Naruto's eyes widened and his muscles tensed, information from a dispelled **Kage Bunshin** suddenly filling his mind and providing a critical piece of information. Furious at himself, his killing intent spiked drastically. Several weaker mages wet themselves in fright.

"So that was his plan…" he realized aloud, puzzling Erza. Catching the redhead's confusion, he asked, "Do you remember what I told you about my **Kage Bunshin** and its abilities?"

"Uh… you told me that you receive their memories when they dispel…" trailing off as she realized that he wouldn't have mentioned this if something important hadn't just happened, she promptly jumped to an alarming (but reasonable) conclusion. "Did something happen to the guild?!"

"Actually, the guild's fine," he shrugged, making her sigh in relief. "The problem is that one of the many clones that I left behind? You know, to guard the guild and the girls? Well, the clone saw two members of the Element 4, '_Ameon'na_' Juvia and Sol of the Land, subdue and kidnap Lucy."

Erza frowned. "Why would Phantom Lord start a war and go to so much trouble to get their hands on Lucy, of all people?"

"Apparently, Lucy's been hiding the fact that she's the daughter of Jude Heartfilia, the business magnate," he grunted, more annoyed than anything else.

The redhead was taken aback, more surprised by this new fact about Lucy than by the murderous bloodlust that her teammate continued to emit quite casually. Even though he'd calmed down a bit, his power was still washing over the entire guildhall. Grimacing, he stood up and shouted, "Everyone stand back! I'll finish this battle in one move."

"What?!" everyone bellowed. Erza simply shouted, "You heard him!" She wouldn't repeat herself.

The Fairies looked at each other before backing off, unwilling to provoke neither their Titania any further nor their mysterious Demon King. She helped remove the few battlefield casualties, barking orders. As the group's commanders, Naruto and Erza had every right to order them around as needed.

Also, thanks to Naruto's killing intent, the remaining members of Phantom Lord were too scared to try and attack at their withdrawing opponents.

"Thank you for trusting me, Benihime-chan," he whispered in her ear, making her blush rather badly.

Turning back to the remaining Phantoms, the Demon King of Fairy Tail bellowed, "Listen to me well, Phantom Lord! I offer you the chance to surrender peacefully!"

They laughed at his words and instead charged him, hoping to overwhelm him and his fellows in Fairy Tail through sheer numbers.

Naruto sighed in resignation. "A pity they wouldn't take my offer."

Shrugging in spite of himself, he added, "Now, no one can blame me for what happens next."

Making a few hand-seals at high-speed, he took in a deep breath that inflating his lungs and chest to at least three times its normal size. He yelled, "**Fūton: Rasenshinkūgyoku!**"

The **Fūton: Rasenshinkūgyoku** was a belch that released a spiraling cannonball of compressed air that slammed into the front lines of the approaching Phantom Lord grunts and quickly exploded.

The ball disintegrated into a windstorm, cutting at everything within reach and shearing through the building around it. But the squall vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind debris and dust that he'd kicked up. The most important thing, right then and there, was that Phantom Lord's rank-and-file had been vanquished and were left groaning and nursing deep cuts of all kinds.

Erza was stumped by the display of such deadly and destructive power, and she wasn't alone. Everyone who'd stayed behind now knew that Naruto was more of a monster of the likes of Gildarts, Laxus or even their master. They all gulped nervously in unison, praying to never have him as an enemy.

Naruto exhaled noisily, turning about to see his now-scared guildmates and sighed. The fact that his new friends would react like this to a small display of power really hurt.

Erza was the first to snap out of her shock once she noticed Naruto's brilliant blue eyes clouding with resignation. She remembered what she was like just after she'd fled the Tower of Heaven, before she found the beautiful guild of Fairy Tail and her many wonderful comrades. She wanted Naruto to trust her enough to tell her everything about himself, to open up to her and even the guild someday.

Without waiting for anyone, she walked up to the ever-mysterious shinobi and patted him on his shoulder. Still… she did have a small grievance to air out. "I didn't know that you could use spells like that, Naruto," she said severely. "Why have you never used them on me?"

Not even waiting for his response, she raised a sword at him. "Did you not use your spells on me because you thought I was weak? Have you been deliberately underestimating me all this time?" she demanded.

"Actually, I didn't mean to," he replied, nervously rubbing the back of his head. "I learned my kenjutsu from a samurai of my acquaintance." At the blank look on her face, he explained, "The _samurai_ are a type of knight unique to my homeland. Thanks to my teacher, though, I learned about the thrill and the honor of fighting another sword-fighter on equal grounds."

Erza chuckled in spite of herself. Naruto seemed to have a silver tongue in addition to his lightning-fast reflexes; no wonder he could finish a battle so quickly. The others laughed, remembering that she'd still been unconscious when he'd first displayed his ninjutsu when he'd fought Natsu a while ago.

"All right, Benihime-chan, can you take our people back to the guild?" the shinobi asked her quietly. "I'll go save Lucy-chan."

"How do you intend to find her, Naruto-kun?" the redhead wondered. That was before she saw his smirk, that broad vulpine grin that he tended to affect when he had a cunning plan.

"I have my ways…" he shrugged, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"Okay, Naruto-kun," she nodded. "But be careful. I know that you're more tired than you pretend to be."

Not wanting to draw out their exfiltration, he smiled. "Okay, I'll do that," he nodded to her, disappearing in a whirlwind of dust and leaves as Erza turned back to her confused guildmates.

"Hey, where did Naruto go?" Cana asked.

Erza smiled slightly, changing back into her usual **Heart Kreuz** armor as she began coordinating Fairy Tail's departure. Her only response was, "To save a captured princess from the clutches of her evil kidnappers."

Her answer confused Cana and the rest of the guild, but they shrugged and followed Erza out, leaving Phantom Lord destroyed in their wake.

In reality, Naruto hadn't gone far. He was standing on the highest remaining tower of the ruined Phantom Lord guildhall. With his **Choubuku Rinnegan **now active, he was scanning the countryside around him for any trace of Lucy.

Much to his surprise, he found Lucy's energy signature nearby and accompanying a high-level mage. Jumping off the guildhall roof, he boosted his leap with a healthy amount of wind chakra that allowed him to reach the roof of a building within Oak Town itself. After a fair amount of roof-hopping, her energy had led him to a large building on the other side of the town away from the Phantom Lord guildhall. As he landed on the roof of the building's tower itself, he smirked triumphantly as he realized that Lucy was almost directly below him.

The person with her was easily as powerful as master Makarov, making him frown in contemplation. With his dōjutsu effectively useless in this situation, he crawled down the wall of the building and looked through a window only to see Lucy bound to a chair. Her companion was a man wearing a strange-looking coat.

Realizing that this man was the figure as strong as Makarov, Naruto knew that he could only be Jose Porla, the master of the Phantom Lord Guild. Noticing that the two of them were alone, he realized that he could easily snatch Lucy away and escape back to the guild with his _Hiraishin no jutsu_.

Between the power of his **Chōbuku Rinnegan** and the lip-reading skills that Iruka-_sensei_ had forced him to learn when he was younger; he learned that Lucy and Jose were talking about letting her use the bathroom. He dumped a metal bucket in front of her, calling her out. But when she actually attempted to remove her panties in front of him, a flustered Jose promptly turned the other way, showing his back to the Stellar Spirit mage.

That act of courtesy was a rather huge mistake on his part. Seeing that her trick had worked, Lucy instantly kicked Jose in the groin and left him to clutch himself.

Naruto flinched, barely keeping himself from crossing his legs instinctively as he chuckled at the hilarity of Lucy managing to trick a Wizard Saint with such a childish move. The stunt was such a ninja move that he'd actually felt half inclined to teach her a few tricks.

Deactivating his dōjutsu and jumping down to the floor of the building, where he could wait for her to run out, he found himself still chuckling at the idea of a rookie like Lucy getting one over on a_n_ opponent like Jose. Her stunt was the kind of prank that he used to pull on Sarutobi-jiji to great effect, so seeing Lucy doing something similar brought back fond memories of simpler times.

Amazingly enough, Lucy had heard his laughter and promptly jumped from a staircase guardrail at the top of the tower, shocking the pain-stricken Jose Porla.

"Naruto!" cried the beautiful blonde as she fell towards certain death.

Having looked up just as she called his name, Naruto crouched down deeply. Feeding a lot of chakra into his legs, he jumped high into the air and managed to grab her while she was still falling. A cheeky grin on his face, he landed on the ground gently and was holding her in a bridal-carry stance. "You called, Lucy-chan?" he asked, more tongue-in-cheek than anything else.

Lucy blushed at the easy intimacy of his solid and muscular arms, feeling safer than she had been for years.

"How did you find me so quickly, Naruto-kun?" she asked, tears threatening to spill from her beautiful doe-brown eyes.

Not really noticing the way she'd changed her honorifics, Naruto untied her hands by way of a **Kage Bunshin** slicing through the rope binding her wrists. "We don't have time to talk here," he mumbled. "We really should get back to the guild."

Adjusting his arms in the bridal carry that he was still holding her in, he exclaimed, "Hold on tight, we'll be back home in a flash!" As she wrapped her arms around his neck for extra support, still blushing, Naruto focused on a certain _jutsu-shiki_ and vanished in a flash of yellow light. The two of them left an angry and vengeful Jose Porla behind to formulate his revenge.

**Original Jutsu Dictionary**

_**Fūton: Rasenshinkūgyoku**_ – Wind Release: Spiraling Vacuum Sphere

To be continued…


End file.
